The big news today as reported is British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s announcement that Britain will withdraw about 1,600 troops from Iraq by the end of the summer:
LONDON - Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the “coming months,” aiming to cut its force to around 5,000 by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday.
British troops will stay in Iraq until at least 2008 and work to secure the Iran-Iraq border and maintain supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops in central Iraq, Blair told the House of Commons.
“The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 — itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict — to roughly 5,500,” Blair said.
I heard him on the radio this morning saying that the Brits would not leave Iraq completely until the mission was complete. Of course, any talk of ‘withdrawal’ by our number one ally in the war on terror is generally met with barely contained glee, as can be evidenced by this particular link to the champion of defeat himself, Glenn “Sen. Russ Feingold quoted me on the Senate floor” Greenwald. Expected, of course, but nauseating nevertheless.
Dan Riehl has up a must-read which notes that the Brit plan to draw down forces is not exactly new news. But to the anti-war media defeatists and their cohorts on the left, it doesn’t matter whether it’s old news or new news. Anything to prematurely break out their party hats and bubbly, right?
Related: Speaking of defeatists, check out video of Murtha talking about his ’slow bleed’ strategy (hat tip: Allah):
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The Brits are showing what we hope can eventually happen. As the Iraqi Military takes over we can bring down our numbers. Let’s face it, the fact that the Brits can bring down their numbers abit only shows that our mutual enemies consider us a larger threat to their agenda than they do the Brits. Also Baghdad is a much larger prize than any other city in Iraq. These hate Bush peaceniks really need to tone down the rhetoric and buy a clue, in no place did Tony Blair say he was leaving permanently. To a person who has their eyes open, this rhetoric really does show you the extent of the “git Bush” attitude these folks do have. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 2/21/2007 - 10:12 am
From BlackFive.Net:
“I believe what SGT [redacted] says is correct as I have found few if any soldiers ready to do what the democrats seem to want. I’ve been tardy writing my own letter because I wanted to give myself time to see and hear from more soldiers to be sure I had an understanding of what they were really thinking. Well, I’m ready to write another letter and after reading what this NCO says wanted to give you a little bit of a heads up to part of what I will say. SGT [redacted] is typical when he says he’s not willing to question anyone’s patriotism. But treason; yes I think most soldiers feel betrayed by our elected officials in both houses of congress.
How? They listen to the incessant chatter of the politicians how they support what we do and wouldn’t want to do anything that would hurt them. But you see, that is just it, they haven’t given us everything we need to do the job. As much as we need the money and equipment, we need the moral and emotional support of our people and elected officials, otherwise the ground is cut out from under us. This is what too many Americans fail to realize, what their military needs right now is the moral and emotional support to finish the job. The soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors on the front line know what they see and that a lot of good things are happening in their area. They can see the opportunity for victory. But when all we hear is how much our people hate what we are doing, and want us out before the job is complete, it causes some in the military to begin questioning whether we should even be here, in spite of the good things they see. After all, who wants to risks their life for a conflict no one back home cares about? Once that way of thinking takes hold of a military, they are compromised as a fighting force. And I understand our senators, congress people, and media sitting in their comfortable little offices in their ivory towers would deny that is their intent. Deny as they may though, that is precisely what they are doing to the United States military.
The bottom line, measured by the number of attacks daily, things are improving in Baghdad and Al Anbar Province. Since those are the last two places that have to be pacified for is to stabilize Iraq we know we can win the war. The question is not can we win this war, it is do the American people have the will to win?”
http://www.blackfive.net/main/
Comment by G-Monster @ 2/21/2007 - 11:26 pm