UK has left behind murder and chaos, says Basra police chief

[unhappycamper]

Source: Guardian

Mona Mahmoud, Maggie O'Kane and Ian Black
Monday December 17, 2007
The Guardian

The full scale of the chaos left behind by British forces in Basra was revealed yesterday as the city's police chief described a province in the grip of well-armed militias strong enough to overpower security forces and brutal enough to behead women considered not sufficiently Islamic.

As British forces finally handed over security in Basra province, marking the end of 4½ years of control in southern Iraq, Major General Jalil Khalaf, the new police commander, said the occupation had left him with a situation close to mayhem. "They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world," he said in an interview for Guardian Films and ITV.

Khalaf painted a very different picture from that of British officials who, while acknowledging problems in southern Iraq, said yesterday's handover at Basra airbase was timely and appropriate.

Major General Graham Binns, who led British troops into the city in 2003, said the province had "begun to regain its strength". He added: "I came to rid Basra of its enemies and I now formally hand Basra back to its friends."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2228690,00.html

[bemildred]

1. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. It will be the same everywhere when we leave.

Surge or no surge, timetable or no timetable, Bush or no Bush.

[LynnTheDem]

2. Simple devastating fact; George W. bUsh has made everything WORSE

for Iraqis, than Saddam Hussein.

Way to fucking go, bush. Not too many people in the world coulda done such a heckova job.

Stupid MFer.