Posted on 07/16/2008 11:41:45 AM PDT by Mercia
THE PM’S plan to pull Our Boys out of Iraq has been scrapped – and 120 EXTRA troops are to be sent to the war zone instead.
The decision follows the biggest crisis between Britain and the US since before the 2003 invasion.
Our top brass got a heavy dressing-down from US chiefs and were accused of not pulling their weight in Iraq.
And US President George Bush made it clear to Gordon Brown in London last month that any early British withdrawal would mean failure to achieve long-term targets.
In tense phone calls, US Iraq supremo Gen David Petraeus told Ministry of Defence operations chief Lt Gen Nick Houghton that commanders in Basra had failed to train the Iraqi Army properly.
British soldiers have not been “embedded” within Iraqi units like US troops in Baghdad – because Whitehall officials wanted them to be on standby to leave for home as soon as possible.
General Petraeus blamed the absence of UK troops for a disastrous Iraqi Army offensive in Basra in May – when hundreds of Iraqis ran away from combat.
The MoD gave in to US pressure and agreed to provide reinforcements – pushing our total forces in Iraq to more than 4,100.
And in a dramatic change of tactics, British officers and NCOs are now being attached to Iraqi Army units – in line with the American war plan.
A military source said: “The Government wants us to get out of Iraq as soon as possible so more troops can go to Afghanistan.
“But we tried to leave too quickly, and that made the Americans furious. We were proved to have got it wrong.”
The PM was due next week to set out a timetable for the return of our soldiers.
But instead he is expected simply to set out the precise criteria to be met before any British troops can come home.
Any pull-out from Iraq is now highly unlikely for at least another year.
I noticed they managed to get “disasterous offensive” thing in there but otherwise...not bad for a Brit paper.
It’s really sad that it had to come to this.
The UK leadership created a lot of that “disasterous” by trying to fight a war based on political correctness.
Hmm. The truth is that Tony Blair wasn’t that keen on the Iraq war either, but he did not want to put an end to the Special Relationship, which is, if the truth be told, England’s single most important foreign policy consideration. Blair liked clinton much better than Bush. He was a keen supporter of the attack on Yugoslavia, but dragged his feet on Iraq.
I thought Norman Brown would go the other way, since he gave Blair a lot of grief for his stand, but evidently he sees the importance, too.
They are not our poodles, but our allies, and if they want our support in the future they should give us their support now.
Hmmmm. Now even our "top brass" is saying it. I took some heat about a month or so ago for daring to imply the same thing as "I knew nothing about war". Well, now the generals are saying it...I guess they don't know anything either.
Is there really still a “war” in Iraq?
The MoD has been on a constant track of betrayal of the fighting man in Britain for some time. No wonder the least competent wind up in charge.
Did you see where they recently denied medical services to a Ghurka who had been awarded the VC?...he returned the decoration.
Can you read Obamarama?????
I pretty much agree with most of your point. Mostly.
As for allies giving support, isn’t that exactly what we are providing now, in Iraq (4,100) and Afghanistan (8,000)? There isn’t another nation on earth that has supported the US’ policies both financially, diplomatically and militarilly.
Not trying to be unpleasant about it. I have English cousins and have put in time in England. But I’m not an admirer of Norman Brown or the Labour Party.
I think the Labour Party has been disastrous for England. But it’s good that even Brown realizes that, apart from our historic ties and common language and long history of friendship, England needs the U.S. as a counterweight to the EU. Brown is a Europhile, and I think he helped push Blair out by playing on Labour Party resentment of the war. But now, like Blair, he is doing the right thing for his country.
I knew there was an “or” in it somewhere.
Yes, it started about the time the 1957 UK Defense whitepaper was published.
When the UK decided that it would be better to gut their military and rely on the US nuclear umbrella so they could spend the money on things like state-run healthcare.
The individual Tommy or Jack Tar is a world-class fighting man. The technology that the UK actually puts into service is also world-class.
The UK government has routinely shortchanged and abandoned them.
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