British Defeated in Iraq

[Ponzi]

The British are taking more casualties (even with a smaller force in Iraq) than last year. Soon they will be confined soley to Basra Airport. They will have to extradite themselves from this last small enclave at some stage. Might bring back memories of the American evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon Vietnam in 1975 (an unseamly shambles).

"The British have basically been defeated in the south," a senior U.S. intelligence official said recently in Baghdad. They are abandoning their former headquarters at Basra Palace, where a recent official visitor from London described them as "surrounded like cowboys and Indians" by militia fighters. An airport base outside the city, where a regional U.S. Embassy office and Britain's remaining 5,500 troops are barricaded behind building-high sandbags, has been attacked with mortars or rockets nearly 600 times over the past four months.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...601401_pf.html

[Aindriu]

The British are taking more casualties (even with a smaller force in Iraq) than last year. Soon they will be confined soley to Basra Airport. They will have to extradite themselves from this last small enclave at some stage. Might bring back memories of the American evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon Vietnam in 1975 (an unseamly shambles).

"The British have basically been defeated in the south," a senior U.S. intelligence official said recently in Baghdad. They are abandoning their former headquarters at Basra Palace, where a recent official visitor from London described them as "surrounded like cowboys and Indians" by militia fighters. An airport base outside the city, where a regional U.S. Embassy office and Britain's remaining 5,500 troops are barricaded behind building-high sandbags, has been attacked with mortars or rockets nearly 600 times over the past four months.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...601401_pf.html

The septics aren't exactly winning either are they?

[Bogwarrior]

Given that the British once declared the ENTIRE CITY of Basra "A legitamite military target" and shelled it for days, this is a welcome development, and should make them think twice about invading someones country again.

[odie1kanobe]

http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

3% of US casulaties are suicide.

[lostexpectation]

being defeated contends that you had a chance of winning? the US obviously are still deluded so the british not so

[Ponzi]

The British are taking more casualties (even with a smaller force in Iraq) than last year. Soon they will be confined soley to Basra Airport. They will have to extradite themselves from this last small enclave at some stage. Might bring back memories of the American evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon Vietnam in 1975 (an unseamly shambles).

"The British have basically been defeated in the south," a senior U.S. intelligence official said recently in Baghdad. They are abandoning their former headquarters at Basra Palace, where a recent official visitor from London described them as "surrounded like cowboys and Indians" by militia fighters. An airport base outside the city, where a regional U.S. Embassy office and Britain's remaining 5,500 troops are barricaded behind building-high sandbags, has been attacked with mortars or rockets nearly 600 times over the past four months.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...601401_pf.html

The septics aren't exactly winning either are they?

I'm under no illusion that the American position is just as bad if not worse. They are obliged to retain control of Iraqi Oil infrastructure no matter how bad the 'security situation' becomes over the coming years. However the British presence in the south is now utterly ineffectual, serving no purpose with regards to providing security let alone 'normalisation' or facilitating infrastructural development. Its a question of semantics as to how the British position is described. This American intelligence officer described it as defeat, the British would probably be describe it as a tactical concentration. Make up your own mind.

[Sam Lord]

In the south they had it easy in the initial years (and moaned like hell when they had to move into Sunni areas to cover while the yanks assaulted Fallujah).

Now they are being left with an increasingly shtty end of the stick as the Yanks are changing sides in the internal conflict ... cutting deals with the Sunni (Baathist?) insurgents to have them take on the Islamicists and the Shia Militias whom the yanks view as Iran supported.

The withdrawal of the Brits is inevitable as their position becomes increasinglu untenable. But what is the US plan to protect their supply lines from the south?

[Kf]

SamLord makes a good point. The withdrawl of the Brits means that the main overland supply route will be even more vulnerable. The US would need to deploy 10,000 to the south to ensure it remains open, thats 10,000 that they simply don't have. This is the start of the final play in Iraq. Expect all foreign troops to be out by christmas 2008.

[Jozer]

...should make them think twice about invading someones country again.

Don't hold your breath.