Tag: iraq
Most people 'want Iraq pull-out'
From the BBC…
Most people across the world believe US-led forces should withdraw from Iraq within a year, a BBC poll suggests.
Some 39% of people in 22 countries said troops should leave now, and 28% backed a gradual pull-out. Just 23% wanted them to stay until Iraq was safe.
In the US, one-in-four supported an immediate withdrawal, while 32% wanted Iraq’s security issues to be resolved before bringing the troops home.
The BBC World Service commissioned the survey of 23,193 people.
Click on the cartoon below to read the full report…
British occupation troops flee from Basra
From CounterPunch…
The withdrawal of British forces from Basra Palace, ahead of an expected full withdrawal from the city as early as next month, marks the beginning of the end of one of the most futile campaigns ever fought by the British Army.
Ostensibly, the British will be handing over control of Basra to Iraqi security forces. In reality, British soldiers control very little in Basra, and the Iraqi security forces are largely run by the Shia militias.
The British failure is almost total after four years of effort and the death of 168 personnel. “Basra’s residents and militiamen view this not as an orderly withdrawal but rather as an ignominious defeat,” says a report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “Today, the city is controlled by militias, seemingly more powerful and unconstrained than before.”
The British military presence has been very limited since April this year, when Operation Sinbad, vaunted by the Ministry of Defense as a comparative success, ended. In the last four months the escalating attacks on British forces have shown the operation failed in its aim to curb the power of the militias.
The pullout will be a jolt for the US because it undermines its claim that it is at last making progress in establishing order in Iraq because Sunni tribes have turned against al-Qa’ida and because of its employment of more sophisticated tactics. In practice, the US controls very little of the nine Shia provinces south of Baghdad.
The British Army was never likely to be successful in southern Iraq in terms of establishing law and order under the control of the government in Baghdad. Claims that the British military could draw on counter-insurgency experience built up in Northern Ireland never made sense.