Vol. 71/No. 10      March 12, 2007

The increased deployment will coincide with British commander Major-General Jacko Page succeeding the present Dutch command of the southern region of Afghanistan in May.

Five days ago, Prime Minister Anthony Blair said that 1,600 British troops would leave Iraq within the next few months. He claimed that their five-month “Operation Sinbad” in Basra was a success.

U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice praised Blair's announcement, saying that the British government had "done what is really the plan for the country as a whole, which is to be able to transfer security responsibilities to the Iraqis as conditions permit," reported the February 22 Financial Times.

Differing views among the British ruling class on the coming troop moves are reflected in the main bourgeois papers here. In its February 22 editorial, "Redeployment, not Retreat,” the London Times said that “Operation Sinbad appears to have severely curtailed [Shia militias’] activities.” The editorial was subtitled, “Britain will and should maintain troops in southern Iraq.”

The same day the Financial Times, on the other hand, called the troop withdrawal “the beginning of the end to a damaging and discredited enterprise,” adding that to “misrepresent this as success is, at best, disingenuous."
 
 
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Washington presses for more sanctions against Iran
U.S.-led offensive deals blows to ‘terror’ group in Philippines
U.S. Special Forces operate from bases in Ethiopia  
 
 
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