[bobsunshine]

"The British have basically been defeated in the south," a senior U.S. intelligence official said recently in Baghdad. They are abandoning their former headquarters at Basra Palace, where a recent official visitor from London described them as "surrounded like cowboys and Indians" by militia fighters. An airport base outside the city, where a regional U.S. Embassy office and Britain's remaining 5,500 troops are barricaded behind building-high sandbags, has been attacked with mortars or rockets nearly 600 times over the past four months.

The British did not seem to use "clear and hold" but rather "clear and reconstruction". Here is an interesting comment: The British approach of lightly armed foot patrols -- copied from counterinsurgency operations in Northern Ireland -- sought to avoid antagonizing the local population and encourage cooperation.

[pnh102]

Considering the source of this article, is any of this story to be believed?

[From One - Many]

sought to avoid antagonizing the local population and encourage cooperation.

So now, the British Military is going to throw away all achieved?
This is not the British Military, I remember, or ACTUALLY I should say the British Leadership, I remember.

[Gay State Conservative]

Just goes to show that Europeans (Western and Central Europeans,at least) don’t have the foggiest idea of how important it is to destroy mainstream islam (aka:”radical”islam) or of going about defeating a movement whose mindset is firmly planted in the 9th Century.

[WBL 1952]

Washington Post reporters along with Newsweek, etc. are just adament this war will be lost and losing it will be good for America. To that end; they are convinced their malicious reporting is good for us.

[expatguy]

The White Man's Burden.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Red Badger]

Brits Bolt Basra Basketcase?.......

[himno hero]

...these are not a civilized people, nor do they understand process, systems and infrastructure, its purpose, how it works

and where they fit into the picture.

What they do know is the law of the jungle and pass me my AK-47

[SolidWood]

The WaCompost is rooting for withdrawal, and once troops withdraw they complain about detiorating situation?

Oh well.

[SolidWood]

said a senior U.S. official in Baghdad with long experience in the south.

What's with this unnamed sources?

[IamConservative]

But a minor foreshadow of what will happen if the US pulls out of Iraq.

I have long felt we should pull back to the borders of Iraq and secure those borders with extreme prejudice. Let the people inside Iraq do whatever it is they are going to do without outside influence. Once they lose their appetite for killing each other and want to cooperate with each other, then we can help them build a democracy. The situation reminds me very much of packs of dogs in wait to determine who will have control of a territory. Whether today or 5 years from now, this will be settled the only way it can be settled, they will fight each other.

[ishabibble]

>>Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan.<<

Mr. Cole is the only directly quoted person in this entire article. “Senior intelligence official in Bagdhad” is not going to cut if for a report on the failure of the British troops. Plain old bad reporting, just rubbish. Oh well, anything to deflect the success of the Surge.

[pissant]

Tom Ricks’ record on Iraq reporting has been pretty bad.

[batco-barry]

What a load of sh*te!!!!!

[batco-barry]

.........

[ran20]

Ultimately I think if the Iraqis always go back into fractionalism after us expending tremendous resources to bring stability.. then we have to look at option 2, installing our own strongman. Letting him build up a powerbase of iraqis connected to his regime.. then let him take it from there, with us keeping bases there and intervening incase of a coup de tat.

[monday]

“Three major Shiite political groups are locked in a bloody conflict that has left the city in the hands of militias and criminal gangs, whose control extends to municipal offices and neighborhood streets. The city is plagued by “the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias that increasingly intermingle with political actors,” a recent report by the International Crisis Group said.

Just typical Arab Muslim behavior. No one with a brain has ever expected them to act otherwise. They are born and raised to be killers. If foreigners aren’t around they kill each other.

[PEACE ENFORCER]

Hey, I know this doesn’t have anything to do with this article but does anyone remember what happened to “Baghdad Bob”?

[SauronOfMordor]

I seem to recall some Brits touting the superior sophistication of their approach to pacifying their areas a year or two back