Wasn't Britain already planning to pull out of Iraq?

[EnfantTerrible]

This attack just doesn't make sense....

[htuttle]

1. I think they were planning on transferring some troops...

... from Iraq to Afghanistan.

[liberal N proud]

2. I thought I read that over the weekend

So this could be a tool to persuade Tony to keep the British troops in the field. If you entertain that the attack is not actually the responsibility of al Queda.

[SmokingJacket]

3. Yes, that's what I heard.

Were there any news stories about this?

Of course.... nothing has made sense since 9-11, or actually since election day 2000.

[EnfantTerrible]

7. I'm looking for links n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Financial Times

The Ministry of Defence has drafted plans for a significant withdrawal of British troops from Iraq over the next 18 months and a big deployment to Afghanistan, the Financial Times has learnt.

In what would represent the biggest operational shake-up involving the armed forces since the Iraq war, the first stage of a run-down in military operations is likely to take place this autumn with a handover of security to Iraqis in at least two southern provinces.

Defence officials emphasised that all plans for Iraqi deployments were contingent on the ability of domestic security forces to assume peacekeeping duties from UK troops. Iraqi forces have so far proven unable to take over such roles in areas where the insurgency is most intense, and progress has disappointed coalition officials.

But senior UK officers believe the four south-east provinces under UK command, which are largely Shia and have not seen the same violence as more Sunni-dominated areas north of Baghdad, may be ready for a handover earlier than those under US command.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/fabbdb4a-ecf1-11d9-9d20-00000e...

[EnfantTerrible]

10. Thanks

My two yr old disrupted my search.

[wurzel]

4. Yes. but troops going to Afganistan. Where Al Qaeda is.

The real war on Bin Laden is in Afganistan. That makes UK more of a target. Iraq was nothing but an oil grab.

[getmeouttahere]

5. Although, the pipeline from the Caspian....

has to run through Afghanistan, correct?

[wurzel]

8. Correct. Oil and Bushco are always there.

[WCGreen]

6. They are transition peacekeeping to the

Iraqi's in the south where they are in charge of peacekeeping....

[billkurtmeyer]

11. It does make perfect sense and here is why:

I wrote on my blog yesterday why we haven't been attacked since 9/11 on our soil, esentially because they don't need to it serves their purposes, Britian was stuck precisely because they are pulling back on this illegal war - they needed a jolt of terror

here is what I wrote:

So why haven’t we been attacked on our soil since 9/11? I think that even the Sheepole would agree that there are terrorists in this county, so they could easily strap on a suicide bomb and walk into a Wal Mart in Topeka – right? So why haven’t they? I hate to break it to you Sheepole but it isn’t because of your blind notion of Bush’s heroic leadership. Simply put it is because they don’t need to, they got what they wanted, by their one horrific act. Bush over reacted, yes Afghanistan was right, but by invading an Arab country unprovoked we have given the terrorists the recruiting poster and a war on Islam. bin Laden is out there somewhere laughing his ass off at Bush. After 9/11 we had all of the world behind us, the terrorists had everyone against them, now Bush has managed to reverse that in world opinon. They won’t strike as long as we continue this illegal folly because we now are the bad guys, we are the ones with the torture chambers, destroying lives, and killing innocent civilians, and the whole world is against us, that is except for the blind Sheepole. With that said, I'm not against this country or the troops, I'm against what Bush has done to this great nation.

The full post is here on my blog:

http://wakeupsheepole.blogspot.com/2005/07/part-ii-bush...