Brits 'to pull troops out of Iraq by mid-2009’
- added July 13, 2008
- 21 responses
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- stone246
- added this
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The government is aiming to pull the vast majority of British troops out of Iraq by the middle of next year, defence sources have revealed.
While there are no plans to withdraw before George W Bush hands over to the new American president at the turn of the year, the decision is now expected to be made “in the first half of 2009”.
Only troops training Iraqi military or police and special forces are likely to stay, unless there is a sharp change for the worse.
In an indication of Britain’s keenness to withdraw, Des Browne, the defence secretary, emphasised last week that Iraqi troops were better able to keep southern Iraq peaceful than British soldiers. The Iraqi military had broken the grip of militias controlling the southern city of Basra, he said on a visit to the United States. If British troops had tried to oust the militias, “we would still be fighting”, Browne told the Brookings Institution in Washington.
His comments followed the leaking of an army report that criticises the Treasury for fuelling unrest in southern Iraq by failing to fund reconstruction quickly enough.
While there are no plans to withdraw before George W Bush hands over to the new American president at the turn of the year, the decision is now expected to be made “in the first half of 2009”.
Only troops training Iraqi military or police and special forces are likely to stay, unless there is a sharp change for the worse.
In an indication of Britain’s keenness to withdraw, Des Browne, the defence secretary, emphasised last week that Iraqi troops were better able to keep southern Iraq peaceful than British soldiers. The Iraqi military had broken the grip of militias controlling the southern city of Basra, he said on a visit to the United States. If British troops had tried to oust the militias, “we would still be fighting”, Browne told the Brookings Institution in Washington.
His comments followed the leaking of an army report that criticises the Treasury for fuelling unrest in southern Iraq by failing to fund reconstruction quickly enough.
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This is excellent news. Maybe we can start applying "hurry up" pressure to get this monumentally stubborn ball moving!
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- phillyharper
- 2 months ago
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i wish we can leave now , when we do we should not prodcast it before it is done. military plans should be kept secret for the troops safety
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Now that we have started we can't stop! What a waste of the lives of those who gave up their lives for the freedom of Iraq, my brother included.
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Makes me wonder if the UK knows something that the US doesn't (yet).
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LOL didn't their prime minister win on the basis that he was going to leave as fast as possible. This just sounds like more spin to entertain the masses.
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I think the 50-50 split on the responses so far probably reflects the split nationally in opinion on IMMEDIATE pullout from Iraq. Obviously the overwhelming majority of Americans want to pullout asap but it's probably a little less favorable for immediate pullout.
At one time I was in favor of stabalization before exiting. However, given our current fiscal situation I think it is definitely time for complete pullout of Iraq and Afghanistan. As for the retarded argument that if we pullout the terrorists will bring the battle to our shores,our military would be within our shores so....
If our financial situation deteriorates any further we may have to consider drastically reducing our military presence throughout the world(which we should do anyway).
Raising or lowering taxes will not be enough(see;Manufacturing a Global Economic Collapse in the Build-up to WWIII). And I think decreasing military spending is the least painful option on the table.Obviously cuts in other programs are needed but the military carries the best opportunities for the biggest savings. This will have the additional effect of starting to reverse the ailing international opinion of our great country. Besides our military budget is larger than that of the rest of the world combined.That equates to just a little overkill in my humble opinion.
Now I am not naive enough to believe this idea is going to fix all of our problems but it's a damn good place to start.If only our elected officials trusted us enough to be honest with us we could start honest dialogue about our situation.-
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- pissedoffinarkansas
- 2 months ago
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How about cuts in social services and telling the people on it to actually go out and get a job. Heres an idea join the military, or the post office. Both have great 20 year pensions.
Take the needle out and stop relying on the government from cradle to grave. -
Congratulations to the troops and their families. Let's remember those who lost their lives. Mr. bush you should be contrite. The lives of these brave people will be another shamefull legacy of your administration. Clajj05 if you are old enough you should enlist at once. Didn't you state that you still live with your parents. maybe this would open your mind a little. I have already served my tour of duty in my misguided youth. The biggest enlightment of this experience was that the true warriors abhor war.
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America is the only idiot nation attempting to maintain an empire in the tradition of Rome. We'll soon discover in the Middle East what Russia learned in Afghanistan in the 80s and the Brits learned in India shortly before WW2. I would have thought that Rome taught the globe plenty about the price a nation pays to sustain itself as a globally dominating force. It's not like Alex of Macedonia didn't leave excellent notes before he died and his dreams of a Helenistic global dominance collapsed.
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You have to pay attention to learn and that's pretty hard when your drunk and coked up all the time.Remember, the best bush's daddy's money could by him was a c+.
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- pissedoffinarkansas
- 2 months ago
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"In Basra, violence is a tenth of what it was before British pullback, general says"
It's just common sense that the violence will drop when the occupiers pull out, just like it did when the British pulled out of Basra last year: -
And look how we turned out in the long run. We worked out our differences without an outside occupier for the most part.
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