[theknife]

Originally Posted by Sinner

As Mazer has said, this - like almost everything you hear about Iraq is all about home politics. The British have 7000 troops in Iraq right now and they are pulling 1500 out. Denmark is pulling 450 and Lithuania is pulling 53. What the media fails to tell you is Australia is sending more troops. You may see it as abandonment but I think it is a sign of hope. As Iraqi troops take control, foreign troops leave. That`s been the plan all along. Hasn`t it? Let international troops make the country safe, then go home.

There was a poll yesterday, I don’t have a link but it showed 57 percent of Americans want to stay in Iraq and finish the job, 57 percent want to win the war. That is good I guess, and you should be thanking the British because many have sacrificed their lives in this war. So the USA will have to win this war without Britain, Denmark, Lithuania, and certainly without the weasels in France. It has always been on USA’s shoulders.

actually, i regard this as a sign of hope, also - hope that the decision-makers in the Iraq debacle may finally be coming down to earth. Britain's situation is untenable :

LONDON — Britain's decision to pull 1,600 troops out of Iraq by spring, touted by U.S. and British leaders as a turning point in Iraqi sovereignty, was widely seen Wednesday as a telling admission that the British military could no longer sustain simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The British military is approaching "operational failure," former defense staff chief Charles Guthrie warned this week.

"Because the British army is in essence fighting a far more intensive counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan, there's been a realization that there has to be some sort of transfer of resources from Iraq to Afghanistan," said Clive Jones, a senior lecturer in Middle East politics at the University of Leeds, who has closely followed Britain's Iraq deployment.

"It's either that, or you risk in some ways losing both," he said. "It's the classic case of 'Let's declare victory and get out.' "

"declare victory and leave" (also know as "cut and run" in some quarters) is a fine idea - something we should have done several years ago. kudos to the Brits for the reality check. what are they leaving behind in Basra, the city where the British embassy had to be moved to the airport because they were unable to defend it ?

... the Pentagon, in its most recent quarterly report to Congress, listed Basra as one of five cities outside Baghdad where violence remained "significant," and said the region was one of only two "not ready for transition" to Iraqi authorities.

Once a promising beacon, Basra suffers from sectarian violence as well as Shiite militia clashes over oil smuggling. Ferocious street battles have broken out between rival Shiite Muslim groups in provincial capitals such as Samawah, Kut and Diwaniya in the last year

Cheney knows this - he gets the same report. the White House assessment of the British decision is simply dishonest. i know, shocking, isn't it?

oh, and about that poll. i know it's thrilling for the right to finally find a poll that tells them what they want to hear, but let's consider the source.. if you need to latch on to this one, to get past the 30 or 40 other polls that indicate otherwise, knock yoursef out. the methodolgy is so bad, even Republicans have distanced themselves from this particular polling firm.