Great Britain Makes Plans To Withdraw

Great Britain's military commanders have drawn up plans to withdraw all of their troops from Iraq within the next year.

The British commander in southern Iraq, Major-General Jonathan Shaw, produced a “commander’s tactical advice” several weeks ago, senior defence sources said last night. The advice was written for Lieutenant-General Nick Houghton, the chief of joint operations, in London after the Ministry of Defence asked for options that could be presented to Brown when he takes over as prime minister.

This plan has not gone any further than the planning and review stage, but the stage has indeed been set.

Shaw’s “tactical advice” was endorsed by the most senior British officer in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Graeme Lamb, who is deputy coalition commander and based in Baghdad. The advice referred to UK success in training the Iraq security forces in the south of the country, but is also understood to have highlighted the danger of staying in Basra for too long.

The British troops in Basra are stationed in two bases and are scheduled to consolidate their forces into one base. They have been under constant mortar and rocket fire.

The plan has been approved by Lamb but has not gotten approval of Houghton, nor has it gone to the ministers.

“It won’t happen unless ministers say it is okay but in the circumstances it is impossible to see politicians going against the advice of two of the most experienced operational officers in the British Army,” one senior source said. Both Shaw and Lamb are former SAS officers and have been in charge of special forces during the war on terror.

The British feel that their very presence creates a security problem. They feel they have achieved their goal of improving the security in their region and have been moderately successful in turning over security to Iraqi forces.

Withdrawal from Iraq would be far from easy. A large number of armoured vehicles would have to be moved to the port of Um Qasr or Kuwait. Other equipment might have to be destroyed or handed to the Iraqi army.
“There are several contingency plans about exactly how British troops will get out,” one defence source said. “Whatever way we use it will be ugly.

He's right, whatever way they leave it will be ugly. Whatever way they would stay would be even uglier, but as long as the British and the U.S. are in Iraq, the Iraqis will be fighting us. There will be no stability in Iraq until the occupying forces are gone. Doesn't anyone read their history anymore?

There is no military solution to this crisis and no diplomatic will or coalition building ability in the Bush Administration.

We need our own plan to get out of Iraq. Why is it that the democrats have not formulated one? Is there no solution to this? It seems it would be easier to spin straw into gold than to formulate a coherent plan to withdraw from Iraq.

Jim Martin