USA, UK Have No End Game in Sight for Iraq - Terrorism
Robert Fox; 3/4/08
The unsurprising announcement that there are to be no further reductions in British forces in Iraq sends a quite simple message: Neither Britain nor America has in sight an end game for their ill-considered and ill-executed adventure in Iraq since 2003. The plan had been to cut the present force of 4,100 British troops to 2,500 next month. This would have gone down to practically zero by this time next year, when the cut-and-run policy from the Iraq escapade could be blamed on the new tenant of the White House. If only it were so simple. For the time being, they can blame the current setback on that arch-nemesis Moqtada Sadr. But even that doesn’t work. Sadr didn’t start the latest round of fighting in Basra. The ill-advised and strategically challenged prime minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, did. He gambled that he had enough muscle in the Iraqi Army to drive Sadr’s militia from running Basra. So far, he has gambled and lost; and now there must be serious doubts about whether he can continue in office and pretend to be the prime minister of all Iraq and all Iraqis for much longer.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=108513&d=3&m=4&y=2008