British PM announces more troop cuts in Iraq

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Title: British PM announces more troop cuts in Iraq
Date: October 8th, 2007
Source: CBC.ca
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/10/08/britain-iraq.html


Article Summary:

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he will carry out additional troop cuts, reducing the number of British soldiers in Iraq by nearly half. Brown stated that the security status in the British-occupied Basra province has improved significantly and thus Britain could now transfer the control of the region to the Iraqi forces. He further justified the withdrawal by insisting that Britain should let the Iraqis to step up and take over security themselves. Britain's decision to cut troops is mostly due to the fact that the Britain's participation in the invasion and its troops' stay in Iraq have been deeply unpopular. On the same day Brown announced the troop cuts, in fact, more than 2000 anti-war protestors marched from London's Trafalgar Square to the Parliament building, demanding the complete and immediate withdrawal of British troops in Iraq.


Byun's Opinion

As mentioned above, Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq has been deeply unpopular among the British citizens. As a matter of fact, it resulted in Tony Blair's resignation as the Prime Minister. Had not Blair joined the war, he could definitely have been the longest-serving British Prime Minister in history. And obviously, the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown did not want to continue the unpopular war. In order to secure his popularity and ensure his victory in upcoming parliamentary election in 2009, Brown had no choice but to hurriedly carry out continuous troop cuts. Even if he did not want to cut troops, the Labour Party and the public polls would have forced him to do so anyway.

But for a powerful nation like Britain to pull off from the invasion, a justification was needed. So, Britain came up with one: the security status in the British-controlled Basra province has improved significantly and thus it could now safely transfer the control of the region to the Iraqi forces. To make it sound even better, Britain emphasized the principle of "self-determination," saying that the Iraqis should take care themselves. Humanistic it may sound, but we all know that it's just a bluff.

The departure of the British forces from Iraq would leave two international effects: it will encourage the Iraqi rebels to be more aggresive against the foreign invaders, and consequently it will weaken the Bush Administration's final efforts to continue the military occupation of Iraq. It is also a fortunate event for Iran because the Bush administration's attempts to sanction Iran will also be weakened.

In overall, Britain's troop cuts in Iraq indirectly reflects the failure of the American war on Iraq. In fact, Bush administration has lost nearly everything due to the war: its popularity, its key cabinet members, and now, its former greatest foreign ally, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. For me, it is interesting to see that even a strong friendship cannot stand over "few" public polls.