Out by June: UK plans Iraq withdrawal

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Out by June: UK plans Iraq withdrawal
Troops will begin pullout in March and hand over to US

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Wednesday December 10 2008

Britain's six-year occupation of south Iraq will begin
drawing to a close in March, and the last troops will
leave Basra by June, a senior defence source disclosed
yesterday.

But instead of handing over to Iraqi authorities, the
British will be replaced at their Basra airport base
by a large force of US troops, who will set up their
own headquarters there, the source revealed.

The withdrawal follows months of planning and security
assessments by British and American commanders. The
timetable is expected to be confirmed by Gordon Brown
early in the new year.

The initial rundown will be relatively modest, with
the tempo increasing later, defence officials said.
"It'll be very gradual, and then a fairly steep
reduction," one said. By the end of June almost all
the 4,000 UK troops now stationed at Basra will be
gone. About 300 will remain at the request of the
Iraqis to help set up colleges for officer cadets and
senior staff officers, and to train the Iraqi navy.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/10/uk-iraq-withdrawal-troops

[Shardik]

1. "The coalition of the willing."

What did bush say in the beginning? 40 some odd countries with us?

Gee, george. The whole free world is behind you in this?

Sheesh, at least the Britons are smart enough to get out of a losing proposition. Why did we have to wait for Obama for us to get out of there?