[NYTr] Brit Retreat from Basra? It ain't "Victory"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Channel 4 News - Snowmail (UK) - Sep 3, 2007
http://www.channel4.com

RETREAT FROM BASRA?

Victory in our time or retreat? The fact is inescapable, British forces
in southern Iraq have left Basra city and are now hunkered down in
their barracks on the airfield. The 550 British troops have now quit
their city base in Basra Palace, which is now controlled by local Iraqi
forces. This is not a portent of cutting and running, says Downing
Street, but is a long-planned part of the process of handing over to
the Iraqis.

It's not easy to report this development because there is, effectively,
no-one in or around Basra to report it. A British journalist can these
days only do so with the very active participation of the Ministry of
Defence. We have been asking the MoD for many weeks about going to
Basra, and have been told persistently that there will be no
opportunities before October.

You will, however, see footage of the British withdrawal on Channel 4
News tonight because the Ministry of Defence have shot it themselves.
But that won't assist us in coming to a rounded assessment about this
move, and whether it is indeed a victory (because stability and
security are now assured via local authority) or more of a retreat. I
was also intrigued to discover that there is a journalist who has been
allowed to witness these momentous events: the defence correspondent of
The Sun newspaper . 

Jonathan Rugman is trying to make head and tail of it, and we shall be
talking to Bob Ainsworth, the defence minister.

Read and watch the latest: http://tinyurl.com/3935n3

BUSH IN IRAQ

Just as the Brits leave, George Bush decides for the first time in
several years to pitch up in Iraq himself. They have found a safe bit
of desert in Anbar province for him to go bullet-proof jacketless. No
question that he's out to dress the set before General David Petraeus
gives his key evaluation next week of the consequences of the military
surge. Sarah Smith is on the president's case.

Fight for Iraq: http://tinyurl.com/36xykg


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