Posted on 08/18/2007 3:41:05 PM PDT by Pokey78
A MILITARY adviser to President George W Bush has warned that British forces will have to fight their way out of Iraq in an “ugly and embarrassing” retreat.
Stephen Biddle, who also advises the US commander in Iraq, said Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in the south would try to create the impression they were forcing a retreat. “They want to make it clear they have forced the British out. That means they’ll use car bombs, ambushes, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] . . . and there will be a number of British casualties.”
The comments coincide with British military estimates that withdrawal could cost the lives of 10 to 15 soldiers.
Some British officers believe they are facing a “humiliating” retreat under fire to Kuwait or the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
“I regret to say that the Basra experience is set to become a major blunder in terms of military history,” said a senior officer. “The insurgents are calling the shots . . . and in a worst-case scenario will chase us out of southern Iraq.”
Gordon Brown, the prime minister, has agreed with Bush that no decision will be made to withdraw until after General David Petraeus, the US commander, delivers a report to Congress next month on the progress of the Americans’ “troop surge”.
But the British are expected to pull back to a single base at Basra airport soon in preparation for withdrawal.
Biddle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who advised Bush on the troop surge, said Iran would use its influence with the Shi’ite Mahdi Army to exploit the situation.
“It will be a hard withdrawal. They want the image of a British defeat . . . It will be ugly and embarrassing,” he said.
The Ministry of Defence said the British were not heading for defeat. “Although the militias are trying to claim credit for ‘driving us out’, they are failing.”
Then why not coincide the British withdrawal with saturation bombing of Iranin facilities within 200 miles of the border?
British leadership lets down the British army. It is always the leadership, even in the US. God bless the Brit troopers who have risked and in some cases lost their lives for nothing.
Regrads
It will do us no good to see an ally routed in defeat,
if a much stronger US presence is needed let us make it so
and come down HARD on the terrorists.
Gee, I kept hearing about how the British no-confrontational policy was so much more successful than the aggressive U.S. cowboy policy. Based on their decades of colonial experience, even if the last British official with any colonial experience has been in a nursing home for two decades.
Dunkirk II?
Amen to that! The Brits need our help withdrawing from Basra? Fine by me.
Gordon Brown is going to lead that country into the Handcart to Hell. God bless the British soldiers who served so gallantly.
We surge south. The current British presence is around 5500 troops. Quadruple that with Iraqi augmentation and confront the Iranians directly. Break the local militias if they resist. This is absolutely attainable.
This article mirrors the infamous one in the NY Times of a few weeks ago in that it gives the impression that the military situation is so dire that we or the Brits would be lucky to be able to safely retreat. That may be what a lot of people on the Left are desperately hoping but it simply isn't the case.
Amen.
Unfortunately, The Brit high command could never figure out that Iraq is not Ireland, even if they both start with an I.
God Bless the UK soldiers. This isn’t their failure.
+1000
So true. They never had the absolute mandate that our guys do...I would not want to fail and return to face George W. Bush!!
Not even close.
What gives? Seems like Brits and the French are switching roles.
BS
Prior to withdrawal, they should send a regiment to capture and detain alll the staff of the BBC.’
The detained traitors should be shipped to Diego Garcia or a new facility in the Falklands where they can be closely interrogated.
Maybe a play to get the bad guys to attack and fall into a US ambush ( I can hope can’t I )
I hope not.
“They want to make it clear they have forced the British out.”
But they did for the British out.
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