Blair to announce Iraq withdrawal plan

Here’s the scoop:

LONDON – Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, British media reported.

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The announcement comes as President Bush implements an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq, but while some of the other coalition partners are pulling out: The Italians and Slovaks have left, and the Danes and the South Koreans want to start withdrawing.

Blair and Bush talked by secure video link Tuesday morning, and Bush views Britain’s troop cutbacks as “a sign of success” in Iraq, said U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

…snip…

Britain has long been the most important coalition member in Iraq after the United States. But Blair knows the British public and politicians from his own Labour Party want the troops out as quickly as possible, and don’t want to see Britain stick with the United States in Iraq for the long haul.

As the United States increases troops in Iraq, our greatest allies are bringing theirs home.

Mission Accomplished, The Sequel.

Update: The Iraqi government is pleased with Britian’s withdrawal decision.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said it was “a decision in harmony with the government’s intention to assume security responsibilities in the province,” referring to Basra, a predominantly Shiite area 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

President Jalal Talabani also applauded the decision, with his spokesman saying it would act as a “catalyst for Iraqi forces to assume security responsibilities.”

“His excellency considers it as a positive step and thanks British forces for their role in liberating Iraq from dictatorship and maintaining stability in Iraq,” Talabani’s spokesman Hiwa Othman said.

How is Bush and Co. spinning it? I woke at 3:30 this morning to Dick Cheney saying something about this being good news. He said it means that things are good in Iraq. I said to the TV, “Yeah, Buddy, then why aren’t you and Bush bringing our guys home too?”

~ by Miche on February 21, 2007.