Was the pullout of British troops from the volatile region of Basra justified? Were they forced to retreat or did they do so according to a previously thought-out plan? These are the questions that have galloping to the surface since September 3 when British troops were withdrawn from Basra.
The popular consensus is that the British forces were forced to remove their troops out of the city and the palace and station them at the Basra International Airport. Several strategists, especially those in the US government, believe that this was done so as not to be attacked in exchange for staying out of the factional fighting loop. They feel that the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown did this to assure his own people in Britain that he is dedicated to pulling out all the remaining 5,500 British troops from Iraq and handing the security control of the nation over to the Iraqis themselves.
On the surface, it does indeed appear that the British have failed in their objective to check the violence in the second largest city in Iraq but the commander of the British army is of just the opposite view. General Richard Dannatt says that the pullout of the troops from the city was part of a successful strategic plan for Iraq and there’s no question that it was an act of retreat from the continuous threats and attacks from the Shiite militias. True, the forces have been relatively successful in southern Iraq where they have handed three of the four provinces to the Iraqi control but Basra is still deeply soaked in violence and sectarian fighting.
Under such circumstances, it does indeed look that the British made a wrong decision in pulling out its troops from the city since the still vulnerable Iraqi forces might easily crumble in the face of the incessant sectarian attacks. Gordon Brown is still committed to the Iraqi war and the restoration of peace and security in the country but at the same time, he is not as huge a supporter as his predecessor Tony Blair was. Considering this factor, one can sense the feeling that the complete pullout of British troops from the war-ravaged Iraq is looming ominously on the horizon.
Image Source: SMH
Source: Washington Post
