Thread: british retreat from basra

The great majority of people in Basra were glad to see the British go. " You can see the happiness on the faces of everyone," said Adel Jassam, a teacher. "It feels like a heavy burden has been lifted off our chests. "

A recent BBC poll showed 85 per cent of Basra citizens thought the continuing presence of the British had a detrimental effect on the security of southern Iraq.

Basra, where David Milliband, the foreign secretary, acknowledged Britain was not handing over a "land of milk and honey" to local forces. Or as a British army major put it, we never pretended we were going to hand over a state that resembled Surrey. Both support the view that the British occupation did not make life for Basrawis worse. Major-General Jalil Khalaf, Basra's new police commander, disagrees in an interview today in the Guardian. He said that the British did not foresee the problem of the "double loyalty" of many of the recruits in the Iraqi security forces which they were training. The result is that Britain's departing forces have left him with "militia ... gangsters ... and all the troubles in the world."

Britain bows out of a five-year war it could never have won - Independent Online Edition > Middle East
Harsh lessons of our retreat from Basra | the Daily Mail
Retreat from Basra: the slow death of the Iraq campaign - Independent Online Edition > Middle East
Google News


even though it is a terrible loss of face for the once mighty british empire, it was the appropriate decision...and brown deserves credit for having the courage to do the right thing.
one can only hope that future PMs will have similar courage if/when future US presidents try to cajole them into pre-emptive wars. because make no mistake...without the inclusion of the british, this mess never would have gotten out of the planning stages.

but no one should lose sight of the fact that it's the people of basra who now have to pick up the pieces.