ThePoliticalCat: Iraq: British Leaving Basra

Photo from The Sun

Today's Sun - well, tomorrow's, actually - carries a lovely picture of Gordon Brown, the current British premier, with a bunch of British troops in Basra, and an accompanying article titled "Happy Xmas, your war is over."

So for all of you who have doubted that the British are really and truly done with Iraq and are getting out as fast as they can, I'd say there's your proof.

We've warned repeatedly of the dire consequences of a British pullout. The article states, in part:

By early next year, our contingent in Southern Iraq will be cut to 2,500 – and may be withdrawn completely in March.

The PM broke the good news in a flying visit to Iraq.

He landed at the Army’ s base at Basra airport in darkness in an RAF Hercules transporter plane.

The article fails to mention why Mr. Brown has to fly in to Iraq under cover of darkness. But those of us who have been following the news rather than listening to the lies of the Misadministration know quite well that our wild success in Iraq has resulted in the insurgents taking down aircraft. So the Leaders of the Free World must sneak about in the dark and dare not fly into Baghdad at all.

As for Brown's sudden incentive to declare the war over, could it have resulted from this?

Before flying out, Mr Brown insisted five Brits kidnapped in Iraq’s capital Baghdad in May must be freed immediately.

The kidnappers warned last week the men will be killed unless troops are withdrawn, but Mr Brown said he would not be forced into changing his policies in the country.

Reminds me of a Monty Python skit. Loudly declare victory then run away as fast as possible. "You can't force me to do that. I'll do it anyway, but it's only because I meant to, see?"

As previous blog posts on this fine blog have stated, we need troops in Basra because our supply lines and evacuation path run through that province. The British will soon be well and truly gone. The puppet government is incapable of holding on to power. Violence that used to ravage Baghdad has simply moved northward as the "surge" of U.S. troops moved into Baghdad, says The Impudent Observer. The Boston Globe agrees, adding this ominous note:

the recent uptick in attacks raised questions whether anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, would call off the six-month truce he ordered last August.

U.S. officials have said the truce was generally holding and partly responsible for a 55 percent decline in attacks nationwide since June.

So the drop in violence that Queen George kept assuring us occurred thanks to his "surge" might actually be attributable to Moqtada al-Sadr's orders and not to the surge at all?

The article goes on to state that violence in Kirkuk has led to imposition of a curfew:

Kirkuk has seen a rise in violence that authorities blame in part on insurgents who fled security crackdowns in Baghdad. Tension among the city's Kurdish, Arab and Turkomen population is running high because of Kurdish aspirations to incorporate Kirkuk into their semiautonomous zone.

Hardly surprising. It is a very well-known axiom of guerilla warfare that one never attacks the enemy when he is strong, only when he is weak. When the enemy is attacking, the guerillas retreat. When the enemy retreats, guerillas attack. The Iraqi insurgents are simply practising well-known guerilla tactics.

Xinhua News Agency reports bombings in Salahuddin province that wounded four people and an attack on the "local leader of an anti-Qaeda group" wounded three of his family members.

Not that the insurgents have anything to fear from the "surge." According to Dahr Jamail, the troops' morale is really low and they're basically hanging out trying to avoid getting killed till their tour of duty is over and they can come home to their families.

Now that the British are leaving Basra, some American soldiers will undoubtedly be shipped off there to protect the supply lines and evacuation route. So if you have friends or relatives out there, start praying for them now. And ask Commander Awol von Bunnypants when he's going to bring the troops home, since, according to him, the Mission was Accomplished over four years ago.