The Next Hurrah: Iraq Withdrawal: Follow-up

March 07, 2006

Iraq Withdrawal: Follow-up

by DemFromCT

Following this story two days ago,

Britain plans to pull out nearly all its soldiers from Iraq by the summer of 2008, with the first withdrawals within weeks, a top military commander said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Nick Houghton, Britain's most senior officer in Iraq, outlined a phased two-year withdrawal plan in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"There is a fine line between staying too long and leaving too soon," he was quoted as saying. "A military transition over two years has a reasonable chance of avoiding the pitfalls of overstaying our welcome but gives us the best opportunity of consolidating the Iraqi security forces."

Britain has given no firm timetable for the withdrawal of its 8,000 troops in Iraq, based in and around the southern port of Basra.

Here's the Telegraph:

Although Gen Houghton said the withdrawal was prompted by confidence that Iraq's 225,000 soldiers and police officers could soon maintain order without assistance, the news was seen by hard-line Shia and Sunni groups as a victory for their resistance to the "occupiers".

The Baghdad spokesman of Moqtada al-Sadr, the militant cleric whose followers have repeatedly fought British troops, said their departure was "our aim and our goal".

Khalil Ibrahim, a leading member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said it was good that foreign troops were leaving voluntarily before they were "forced to".

Hmm. So withdrawing in 2007 was a complete fabrication. It was 2008. As in the story on March 5, this can all be reversed by events on the ground. But for those complaining about 'unnamed sources' in the British military, here's your name.

March 07, 2006 at 00:59 in Bush Administration, Contributor--DemFromCT, War | Permalink

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The Next Hurrah

March 07, 2006

Iraq Withdrawal: Follow-up

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