British prime minister Gordon Brown confirmed to reporters today that large numbers of English troops now in Iraq will be brought home shortly. An official announcement is expected in Parliament early next week.
The news developed during the first visit Brown has made to Iraq since he became prime minister. During the visit he plans meetings with political leaders from the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia. During the meetings, aides say he will discuss the security situation in the country.
News accounts differ on the extent of the English withdrawal. One report describes plans to withdraw nearly 20% of British forces by Christmas. Another suggests withdrawals approaching 40% by early Spring. Compared to the number of American boots on the ground, the English numbers are relatively small; but the proportions speak volumes. More below.
On his first visit to Iraq since replacing Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, English PM Gordon Brown appears to have told reporters of plans to withdraw substantial numbers of English troops. An official announcement remains to be made.
News accounts differ slightly on the number of English troops in the country, and they differ more substantially on the scale and scope of the troop cutback. But Brown's plans are far from trivial.
According to today’s Guardian:Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Britain is to cut the numbers of British troops in Basra by 1,000 before the end of the year, Gordon Brown announced today during his first visit to Iraq since becoming prime minister.
The entire province of Basra could be handed over to full Iraqi control within the next two months, Mr Brown said in Baghdad.
"I believe that by the end of the year British troops can be reduced to 4,500," Mr. Brown told reporters.
If the numbers in this account are accurate, Brown has promised to get 18% of the 5,500 English troops home in time for Christmas. The troops remaining would take up a "tactical overwatch" function, according to the Guardian:
British commanders are hoping to hand over full responsibility for security in the city to Iraqi forces over the coming weeks and months.
It is expected, however, that a British force will remain at the airport on "tactical overwatch", ready to help the Iraqi security forces if they run into any difficulties they cannot manage alone.
Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports that more ambitious withdrawal plans are in the works. If what Thomas Harding and Toby Helm report in the Telegraph is correct, nearly 40% of English troops will be withdrawn within six months.
Although Mr Brown will not lay out a hard and fast "timetable" for withdrawal, it is understood that the current force of 5,250 troops based in southern Iraq could be reduced by up to 2,000 over the next six months.
As in the Guardian report, Harding and Helm say that remaining British forces would be asked to play an "overwatch" role.
It is surely no accident that Brown is in Iraq snatching headlines from the Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who is busy trying to rally the Tories from a recent slump in public opinion polls. And it is unlikely to be an accident that Brown is proposing substantial troop withdrawals on the eve of what appears to be his intention to call for dissolving Parliament ahead of new elections early next month.
According to the New York Times two weeks ago, there are about 169,000 American troops in Iraq. Compared to what are reported to be Brown's plans, President Bush’s promise to bring 5,000 home by Christmas represents a trivial concession to antiwar sentiment. Even the apparent pledge to back the surge down to pre-surge levels (130,000 troops) doesn’t approach what Brown is proposing. To match the scale of the English plans, Bush and General David Petraeus would have to announce their intention to draw down more than 30,000 Americans by Christmas, followed perhaps by another 34,000 in the succeeding three months.
The last Icelandic soldier in Iraq has already left or is leaving, reports Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo In the great scheme of things, it won't make much difference if the tiny number of soldiers from places like Iceland, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and the like bring their soldiers home (as they all have). But when the main ally in the "coalition of the willing" starts heading for the exit, the United States and President Bush will be even more isolated in the court of world opinion.
The real tragedy, of course, falls on our troops, already in a very tough and difficult situation. These men and women will be looking at a very bleak and harrowing future with little international support around them. As long as Bush and his ideological ilk control American foreign policy, FUBAR will continue to be the only description that comes close to describing what we've done to this country's ideals and to its armed forces.