Friday, August 31, 2007

Do The Math

The British are leaving southern Iraq. They've turned over control to the intrepid Iraq security forces. So why would the U.S. need to send soldiers there? .....

The US military is ready to intervene in southern Iraq to quell any unrest as British forces prepare to pull out from their last base in the oil port of Basra, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Press reports in London suggest that the British departure and handover of security control to Iraqi forces may be imminent, although the official line is that it will take place before the end of the year.

US forces will not allow any security advances in southern Iraq to be abandoned, Brigadier General Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning at the Department of Defense, told reporters.
Two points. First of all it's nonsense to even think that the "Iraq Security Forces" are anything but sectarian militia's carrying out the wishes of their leaders. Second, if you have more American troops in Iraq that have to cover a significantly larger area, isn't that a dilution of the escalation? Aren't we back to square one except with more Americans in the mess?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I heard a bit on NPR about this. They said that the territory that the Brits are handing over the Iraqi forces is a major supply from Kuwait.