Well, gosh, what do you think we could glean from this?
BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Residents of Iraq's southern city of Basra have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace.
Political assassinations and sectarian violence continue, some city officials say, but on a much smaller scale than at any time since British troops moved into the city after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Mortar rounds, rockets and small arms fire crashed almost daily into the palace, making life hazardous for British and Iraqis alike in Iraq's second-largest city. To many Basrans the withdrawal of the British a month ago removed a proven target.
"The situation these days is better. We were living in hell ... the area is calm since their withdrawal," said housewife Khairiya Salman, who lives near the palace.
Civil servant Wisam Abdul Sada agreed. "We do not hear the sounds of explosions which were shaking our houses and terrifying our women and children," he told Reuters.
The British lost Basra last month. They decided to cut their losses and get the hell out.
Stephen Biddle, a member of a group that advised U.S. Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq last year, and a military analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Sunday Times that the British have lost control of Basra and that the inevitable withdrawal from that city will be "ugly".
(snip)
"I regret to say that the Basra experience is set to become a major blunder in terms of military history," Biddle was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The insurgents "in a worst-case scenario will chase us out of town."
Looks like the British didn't exactly "win" in Iraq, did they? And the Americans won't, either. Think the Americans will learn anything from the Basra/British experiment?
Naaaaahhhh ....
And anyway, who wants peace in Iraq? Not the neocons or the Bushies or the oil companies. It would make it far more difficult to steal Iraq's oil:
Five to fifteen million dollars worth of oil goes missing on a DAILY basis from Iraq, the New York Times is reporting in its Saturday edition.
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
A peaceful Iraq would put an end to that gravy train.
This war was about piracy. Nothing more.