Excitement in the air for the Nutroots as Blair announces beginning of troop withdrawal from Iraq

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):

Comments are closed.