Downing Street Says

» Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Iraq

Put to him that the "ex-Prime Minister" referred in PMQs to a troop reduction in Iraq happening in the next few weeks, and asked if there was any more information on that, the PMS replied that there was nothing more that he could add, but this was not a particularly new announcement. Tony Blair was referring to the plan of a gradual draw down that was already underway.

Put to him that the new Prime Minister said in an interview with the Daily Mirror this morning, that he expected troop levels to be at 5,000 in the next few days, and that the MoD had said that there were currently 5,500, and asked whether it followed that there would be an announcement within the next few days, possibly involving the hand back of Basra Palace, the PMS replied that there would need to be a decision by the end of the summer over Basra Palace, but he had nothing to add today.

1 Comment »

Watch out for Brown trying to spin the retreat under fire from Basra and Southern Iraq as a strategic ‘draw down’ or some such nonsense. The military have described the deaths of the three soldiers erlier today as a sign of ‘success on the ground’. What abject lunacy. The coalition have been making enemies of the Shiites in the South by systematic stupidity, including killing and torture of civilians, for years. They are reaping the harvest of this now and are slowly but surely being driven out. They are reduced to one base in Basra which they can hardly defend, the mortar attacks occurring every other day. They are about to abandon that and retreat to the Airport later this year. Brown and his new Foreign Office appointments will try to spin this as a considered decision to withdraw (much media drivel about Brown the peacemaker etc.) It will be in reality a comprehensive defeat leaving chaos, which we are largely responsible for, behind.
Comment by George — 28 Jun 2007 on 7:10 pm | Link

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Iraq

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