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| Iraq-Jordan |
| US, UK troops to be pulled from Iraq starting next year |
| 2005-04-15 |
| British and American troops will be withdrawn steadily from Iraq starting next year and are likely to be completely out of the country within five years, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday. Setting out for the first time a possible timetable for departure of foreign forces, Mr Straw said the 7,500 British troops deployed in southern Iraq are unlikely to be reduced before December, when elections for a permanent Iraqi government are due to be held. However, the United Nations mandate for all foreign forces will expire at the start of 2006 and a review of their status is due to begin in two months' time. Mr Straw said the Government was likely to take "decisions" about the future of British forces in the autumn. "The progressive run-down of forces is likely to happen next year," he said. "As to the pace, I cannot say until later this year but over the next parliament British troops will be down to virtually nothing." America and Britain have avoided spelling out their "exit strategy" for fear of being seen to "cut and run" and encouraging insurgents to believe that the coalition could be driven out by bombs and guns. But amid a relative lull in political violence - and with a new government taking shape in Baghdad after January's momentous elections - the Government now seems ready to talk about the coalition's readiness to pull out. Such a signal would also help fend off accusations by Arab militants that the new Iraqi rulers are merely puppets of the Americans. Mr Straw may be seeking to assuage anti-war sentiment in Britain, particularly in his Blackburn constituency, which has a sizeable Muslim population. He admitted that "quite a lot of people are angry about Iraq" in Blackburn but hoped his constituents would recognise his efforts to avert a looming war between India and Pakistan in 2002. Among those running against Mr Straw is Craig Murray, a controversial former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who fell out with the Foreign Office over his criticism of the Central Asian republic's human rights record. Mr Straw said timing of troop withdrawals will be determined by the Iraqi forces' ability to take over responsibility for security and progress in Iraq's political process. Lt-Gen John Kiszely, the senior British commander in Iraq, said last week that coalition forces could soon start handing over the "lead" to Iraqi forces in provinces where the insurgency is least intense. Iraqi forces are growing in size, competence and confidence. But there has been an embarrassing disagreement between Washington and Baghdad over how far the training of Iraqi forces has come. President George W Bush this week claimed that Iraqi troops now outnumbered their American counterparts but it was questioned by Iraq's interior ministry yesterday. "We are paying about 135,000 (members of the security services) but that does not necessarily mean that 135,000 are actually working," said Sabah Kadhum, the ministry's spokesman. There are about 140,000 American soldiers in Iraq. According to Iraqi officials, "ghost soldiers" could account for as many as 50,000 of those officially on the security forces' payroll. The discrepancy is largely explained by deserters and by corruption. Fears that a phased US withdrawal could come unstuck have been raised after the government headed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the new prime minister, threatened to purge the security forces of soldiers with links to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 Bill, U.S. forces in Germany have been reduced at a steady pace since the early 1990s... I watched the process from a civilian corner of Frankfurt, and lost my favorite bookstore in that part of the world when Abrams Airforce base closed. Pretty soon Germany will be down to just a few thousand Amis in uniform, and no dependents. In South Korea, Rumsfeld has started pulling American troops back beyond Seoul, leaving the locals in charge of protecting their border with their Northern cousins. Each time troops are rotated out for service elsewhere, they won't be going back. So that segment of our world forces reorganization is going along smartly. No worries, mate! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-15 6:08:29 PM |
| #4 Hay hay hay! Shouldn't we get out of Germany and Korea first? |
| Posted by: Bill 2005-04-15 4:32:12 PM |
| #3 Maybe they don't know, or are cupping their hands over their ears and yelling, "YAAYAAYAAYAAYAA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU" when someone tries to tell them. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-15 11:03:58 AM |
| #2 Article: Mr Straw may be seeking to assuage anti-war sentiment in Britain, particularly in his Blackburn constituency, which has a sizeable Muslim population. I am starting to figure out why Straw keeps on making these bizarre statements. I find it pretty amusing - Muslims voting en bloc for a Jew. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-04-15 9:31:23 AM |
| #1 UK election next month. The important figure here is 5 years. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2005-04-15 7:29:37 AM |