How 4 Words From Basra Will Change Everything

[kpete]

How 4 Words From Basra Will Change Everything
Posted November 17, 2007 | 11:38 AM (EST)

A recent article about British troops leaving Basra (the second largest city in Iraq) suggests that the Iraq debate is about to experience a seismic change--a shift in the way every American talks and thinks about the most pressing issue of our time.

troops leave, violence drops

As the deafening hubbub of propaganda drowns out every attempt to talk real policy change on Iraq, this simple descriptive formula--troops leave, violence drops--cuts through it all.

.............

The British pullout from Basra, and the subsequent logic of violence dropping as a result of that pullout, will change the debate again by reimposing a simple logic of up and down, in and out. To see that logic at work, take a look at this description of the British pullout that appeared recently in the International Harold Tribune:

Attacks against British and Iraqi forces have plunged by 90 percent in southern Iraq since London withdrew its troops from the main city of Basra, the commander of British forces there said Thursday.

The presence of British forces in downtown Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was the single largest instigator of violence, Maj. Gen. Graham Binns told reporters Thursday on a visit to Baghdad's Green Zone.

"We thought, 'If 90 percent of the violence is directed at us, what would happen if we stepped back?'" Binns said.

Britain's 5,000 troops moved out of a former Saddam Hussein palace at Basra's heart in early September, setting up a garrison at an airport on the city's edge. Since that pullback, there's been a "remarkable and dramatic drop in attacks," Binns said.

(full article here http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/15/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Basra.php)

5,000 soldiers leave
90% drop in violence

On a much more profound and far-reaching level, however, it is the way the British pullout imposes a new logic pragmatism on the entire Iraq discussion that allows these statistics to connect strongly with Americans' sense of right and wrong, good and bad.

.............

The up-and-down-in-and-out logic of this description is more powerful than any protest argument about the war to date, and has an almost unlimited potential to sweep through both the broadcast media and face-to-face conversations that make up American political debate.

more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/how-4-words-from-basra-wi_b_73117.html