Blair Announces Troop Withdrawal
This morning, Tony Blair announced a part withdrawal of troops from Iraq over the comeing months. Unfortunately the rumours from late last night of a full withdrawal being announced by No.10 Downing Street were unfounded. Britain will withdraw about 1,600 soldiers from the Southern part of the country, handing control of it over to Iraqi forces. This will bring the UK’s forces in Iraq to under 5,000 by the summer, down from nearly 40,000 at the time of the conflict.
Last night, the proposed press conference and announcement of withdrawal was leaked, which lead to many false accounts of what could actually be on the table. The rolling TV and radio news channels were full of speculation that Blair might have at last capitulated to the British people’s stance on the war. All opinion polls and surveys on the matter show that the majority want out, and as soon as possible. But it seems this was much ado about nothing.
British troops are now committed to staying in Iraq until at least 2008. and I suspect longer. Denmark will be pulling it’s 500 troops out from the same area around Basra by August. So while the rest of the coalition look at ways out, and reducing the number of their soldiers tied up fighting an impossible war, America and George Bush are implementing a 21,000 troop ’surge’ into the capital Baghdad. This will bring total US forces numbers up to 159,000, that’s a lot of young men fighting a terrorist force who would rather die than surrender.
Tony Blair, Troop Withdrawal, Blair Press Conference, Iraq, UK, US, British American, 10 Downing Street, Baghdad, Basra, Denmark, George Bush
February 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
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