U.K. Troops May Leave Iraq by 2006

[EuroObserver]

LONDON (AP) - British troops could leave Iraq by the end of 2006, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in a television interview to be broadcast on Sunday. Britain's top soldier said this timetable was well within the realm of possibility.

Talabani said Iraqi troops should be ready to take over from British forces in the southern provinces around Basra by the end of next year, adding no Iraqis wanted foreign troops to remain indefinitely in their country. But he warned that an immediate withdrawal of U.S.-led forces would be a catastrophe for Iraq and would lead to civil war, with harmful consequences for the entire Middle East.

"We don't want British forces forever in Iraq. Within one year - I think at the end of 2006 - Iraqi troops will be ready to replace British forces in the south," Talabani said in the interview with Jonathan Dimbleby for Independent Television. The station released details from the interview before it aired.

British army chief of staff Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, said Sunday that this timetable was "well within the range of what is realistically possible. The president has said that we could leave within year or so. I would agree - we most certainly could. But it's a question of achieving the right conditions," Jackson told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Sunday A.M. program.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5411790,00.html

[ClintonTyree]

1. Sooner perhaps......

if Blair is impeached. If they get Blair, bush can't be far behind.

[goddess40]

2. could it be that there are elections in the fall of 2006?

If that's the target date then it is just another republican scam. The sooner the better, but to aim for election time is disgusting. Soldiers just keep dying until the republicans can find a benefit to themselves to warrant bringing them home.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Or 2016. Or 2026. Or whenever the oil runs out.

Or tomorrow. What a massive nonstatement. What a news story devoid of any actual news.

[lostexpectation]

4. Bases

And whats their cut of the oil in return, are the British building a pernament base for themselves like the US, or is their speciality in companies like BP extracting the oil.

I wouldn't believe the Sunday Herald on the promise of 200 hundreds signatures, wishful thinking and the Scots tend to be tiny bit more socalist then English.

[Missy M]

5. The question is, which president said you could leave within a...

year or so, I doubt it is Talabani giving the orders.

[cliss]

6. Don't believe it. See the thread, about 6 posts up....

"Talabani hints troops may come home in 2006".

See what they're doing? They're holding out the carrot, dangling it in front of our faces. They're hoping everyone will fall for it. Bush and his cronies are NOT planning to bring home the troops.

And notice how they always throw in a disclaimer..."But it's a question of achieving the right conditions".

= NEVER

[Journeyman]

7. What is this, about the 18th prognosis for UK troop withdrawal? . . .

Seems anytime the Poodle gets whacked with a newspaper this rumor of imminent withdrawal gets floated, only to fade as Blair regains his footing or when Bush steels his spine for him. As is said in Hollywood, think I'll wait for the movie -- the teasers and the trailers are naught but hype.