Revealed: The true extent of Britain's failure in Basra

[cal04]

The partial British military withdrawal from southern Iraq announced by Tony Blair this week follows political and military failure, and is not because of any improvement in local security, say specialists on Iraq.

In a comment entitled "The British Defeat in Iraq" the pre-eminent American analyst on Iraq, Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, asserts that British forces lost control of the situation in and around Basra by the second half of 2005.

Mr Cordesman says that while the British won some tactical clashes in Basra and Maysan province in 2004, that "did not stop Islamists from taking more local political power and controlling security at the neighbourhood level when British troops were not present". As a result, southern Iraq has, in effect, long been under the control of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) and the so-called "Sadrist" factions.

Mr Blair said for three years Britain had worked to create, train and equip Iraqi Security Forces capable of taking on the security of the country themselves. But Mr Cordesman concludes: "The Iraqi forces that Britain helped create in the area were little more than an extension of Shia Islamist control by other means."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2296829.ece

[babylonsister]

1. I am so damned tired of being lied to. Thanks, cal04, for

sharing the truth.

[Benhurst]

3. Or recommended #2, as the case may be.

:hi:

[Benhurst]

2. A great triumph for Bush and his little lapdog Tony. Yeah. Sure.

Recommended #1

[NoPasaran]

4. On the other hand, the true measure of success...

They declared victory and are going home.

[Boo Boo]

5. k&r

[maddezmom]

6. K&R and a link:US forces detain son of powerful Iraqi politician(SCIRI)

~snip~

Ammar's father is leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the biggest party in Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national unity cabinet. He held talks with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House last December on how to curb sectarian violence in the country.

Ammar Hakim is an influential member of the ruling Shi'ite Alliance in his own right and is secretary general of a humanitarian charity set up by SCIRI.

~snip~

But SCIRI-controlled- Furat television said later that he had been detained.

SCIRI, which has a military wing known as the Badr Organisation, has close links to Shi'ite Islamist Iran. Washington accuses Tehran of fuelling sectarian conflict in Iraq by supplying weapons and training to Shi'ite militias.

U.S. forces have in recent months arrested a number of Iranians in Iraq, including several who were seized at Abdul Aziz Hakim's compound in Baghdad. They were later released.

more:http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL356344.htm

[Tin Man]

7. Nothing new. British failure in Basra evident as early as 2005. Link:

Basra police obeying militias' orders
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. The New York Times

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2005
BASRA, Iraq The most powerful and feared institution here in southern Iraq's largest city is a shadowy force of 200 to 300 police officers, known collectively as the Jameat, who dominate the local police and who are said to murder and torture at will. They answer to the leaders of Basra's sectarian militias.

The militia infiltration in Basra's police force and government goes far beyond the Jameat. But it may be the most ominous example of the degree to which militias dominate Basra.

The extent of Jameat's power became clear in September when British troops in armored vehicles tried to rescue two special operations soldiers who had been abducted and taken to its headquarters in a police building in Basra.

According to three British soldiers there that day, 1,000 to 2,000 people rapidly gathered near the station, which the British troops had partly demolished in an effort to free the captives. The soldiers were ultimately rescued from a house nearby, where they were being held by Shiite militiamen. The British soldiers said many in the mob had been armed with homemade gasoline bombs and grenades, and that the attack appeared to be a disciplined and coordinated response to the sacking of the Jameat headquarters. Iraqi men standing on cars ordered the mob to attack, they said, while rioters clambered on top of armored vehicles and doused soldiers inside with gasoline.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/09/news/basra.php