British Iraq pull-out plan

Times ^ | June 3, 2007 | Michael Smith

[bnelson44]

BRITISH commanders in Iraq have drawn up plans to allow Gordon Brown to withdraw almost all UK troops by the end of the 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.

Brown is due to fly to Iraq to be briefed by Shaw and other commanders on when Britain’s 5,500 troops should be pulled out of Iraq.

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.

[samtheman]

British troops are due to pull back from two bases to one in the city and have been under constant siege from insurgents’ mortar and rocket fire....

The advice is expected to win the backing of General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff, who made clear last October that he believed his men should get out “some time soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems”.

So let me get this straight. The presence of the troops "exacerbates the security problems" which means that all those guys who are currently launching "mortar and rocket fire" are going to suddenly going to become peaceful and law-abiding once all those nasty "exacerbating" troops are gone. Right?

Do I have that right?

[middie]

When the Brits go the tactical situation in the south of the country will be in even more chaos than it is now. We don’t have the forces to spread across that region to keep the rail line and Port of Basra viable. We cannot rely on Iraqi troops to be self sustaining or operationally effective. The terribly bad situation that exists now will be exacerbated by quantum leaps.