British Troops Home by Christmas

Buh... Bye..

Citing the 90% drop in violence in Basra, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that Basra will be handed back within two weeks during a surprise pre-Christmas visit to the troops. Having to arrive like a thief in the night, pitch dark in a RAF C-130, but he damn sure brought some good news. I know Prof. Cole will disagree with the security decrease in Basra, but I know there will be many happy English, Irish and Scottish families this Christmas.


While our troops languish in a hell that our government put them in with no end in sight.

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Brits Out

LONDON — British soldiers began withdrawing Sunday from their last base in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, paving the way for fresh troop cuts and fueling worries about the security of the country's second-largest city and the surrounding region.

U.S. and Iraqi authorities have expressed concern that a broader British drawdown could jeopardize the region's rich oil resources and the land supply line from Kuwait to Baghdad and beyond. Some analysts also fear that British withdrawal could exacerbate a violent power struggle between rival Shiite groups in the sect's southern heartland.

via the huffpo

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Brits Out In October

I expected something like this after reading the FDL piece about Trash Talking Our Allies, the testosterone based name calling going on between us and the Brits.

I guess the UK Prime Minister Gordon Browns visit with Chimpy didnt go well.

US uneasy as Britain plans for early Iraq withdrawal

British officials believe that Washington will signal its intention to reduce US troop numbers after a much-anticipated report next month by its top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, clearing the way for Gordon Brown to announce a British withdrawal in parliament the following month. An official said: "We do believe we are nearly there."

And here is war monger and general idiot Ken Pollack taking a swipe at those dirty traitors.

He said Mr Bush would prefer the British to stay: "What Bush needs is for there to be a Union Jack flying somewhere in Iraq so he can trumpet that as full British participation, but that participation has been meaningless for some time."

Mr Pollack, who wrote on his return that there were signs that the surge was working, was dismissive of the British contribution over the past 12 to 18 months. He said: "I am assuming the British will no longer be there. They are not there now. We have a British battle group holed up in Basra airport. I do not see what good that does except for people flying in and out.

"It is the wild, wild west. Basra is out of control."

Which is funny because he told us its going just f*cking great in Iraq as I posted about yesterday

UPDATE: This cried out for a little recap.


So, we have Anbar basically is being written off, we have major bridges being damaged or destroyed in Ramadi and Baghad, and the Turks massing on the northern border and now the British are no longer helping keep our supply lines to the south clear. The same roads that we would use to leave Iraq.

UP-UPDATE: And now we are poking sticks at the Mahdi Army. Yes, sports fans, the same Mahdi Army that now controls Basra.

BAGHDAD -- US forces staged a major two-pronged attack on a neighborhood controlled by Shi'ite militia groups yesterday, killing at least 17 people, according to the military and Iraqi police. The raid on Sadr City, an area dominated by loyalists to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was one of the largest in a series of US attacks against Shi'ite militias.

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