Brits quit Basra: What was achieved? (The Independent, UK)

[Apollo11]

Front page lead in today's THE INDEPENDENT (London, England) - September 3, 2007

British leave last remaining Basra base: What was achieved?

By Kim Sengupta

British forces have pulled out of Basra Palace, the onetime southern residence of Saddam Hussein that became the symbol of the UK's role in the US-led invasion.

The British departure from their last remaining base inside the walls of Basra City, signalled their disengagement from the conflict and has highlighted a growing and public discord between Washington and London over Iraq, with the Americans claiming the move will severely undermine security.

The withdrawal itself took place with no fanfare or celebration. The troops from the 4th Battalion, the Rifles have been under a virtual state of siege, with constant rocket and mortar attacks, as they trained Iraqi forces to take over their duties.

Some of the 500-strong contingent who had already left had faced attacks on their way out, and the Ministry of Defence had attempted to keep the date of the evacuation confidential in an attempt to avoid what they term a full scale "fighting withdrawal".

(...)

Read the full article here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2921892.ece

Editorial: The Basra endgame and the trading of blame

The unseemly blame game over who lost Iraq – so reminiscent of those earlier anguished debates over who "lost" China, or Vietnam – has broken out in full. We must now expect more of the finger-pointing that General Sir Mike Jackson and retired Maj Gen Tim Cross have now begun, and which will no doubt prompt sharp retorts and counter-accusations from the other side of the Atlantic.

Few now seriously question the substance of the two generals' complaints, which is that the failure of the coalition to engage in "nation-building", meaning reconstruction, immediately after the invasion, opened the way for most of the horrors that have since ensued and which have now laid waste to much of the ancient land of Mesopotamia.

Their observations, in that limited sense, therefore are almost uncontroversial. What is wholly unprecedented is that they should have spoken out in this way in public. No matter the stresses and strains to which the Anglo-American alliance was subjected in recent decades, especially over the Balkans in the 1990s when there were countless off-the record briefings by one side against the other, it is hard to recall a time since the Second World War when differences between London and Washington have been aired in so open a fashion.

Along with devastating a country, the bungled invasion of Iraq appears to have done lasting damage to the so-called Special Relationship with the United States as well.

(...)

Read the full Editorial here:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2921859.ece

[Botany]

1. OMG our troops will be cut off.

With the Brits gone we now have no secure land supply line
from Kuwait to our troops.

The south (Basra) will be governed by Shi troops.



So how can we resupply our troops? bush will have to send some
troops to the south to keep the road open or we will be cut off.

[Maggie_May]

2. I think the UK is rethinking Iraq

The head of the British army during the Iraq invasion has said US post-war policy was "intellectually bankrupt".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6973618.stm