If President Bush won’t listen to American voters, the majority of Congress or the Iraq Study Group, perhaps he’ll pay attention to his staunchest ally.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided to withdraw nearly a third of his troops from Iraq even as Bush has ordered a “surge” in the number of Americans. Blair seems to have embraced the Iraq Study Group report, which recommended a phased withdrawal of combat troops and a focus on training Iraqi units.
Wednesday, Blair announced that 1,600 British troops would be withdrawing from southern Iraq over the next few months, with the possibility of 500 more by the end of the summer. That would leave just 5,000 British troops, a far cry from the 40,000 deployed in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
Like Bush, Blair has been under public pressure to announce a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Blair did not go so far, but he made it clear that the remaining troops would stay in their general location in southern Iraq, focus their mission on training, protecting supply routes and patrolling the border. They won’t be shifted to Baghdad to help U.S. troops trying to quell insurgent and sectarian violence.
Blair has been Bush’s most loyal ally in the Iraq war, leading to pressure from his own party to step down later this year. The U.K. has the largest allied presence, but the pullback isn’t the only one underway. Denmark, with 460 troops in Iraq, and Lithuania with 53, also will join the train out of town. Britain has 7,100 troops in Iraq, compared with the U.S. contingent of 140,000 and growing.
The White House moved quickly to spin the announcement as Mission Accomplished, but Blair wouldn’t go so far. “What all of this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be,” he said. “But it does mean that the next chapter in Basra’s history can be written by Iraqis.”
Basra anchors a Shiite region of Iraq and is less prone to sectarian unrest involving Sunni and Shiite antagonists.
In Japan, Vice President Dick Cheney was quoted as saying he did not support a “policy of retreat” but viewed the British move as “an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well.” But there are signs that Japan’s support is waning. Last month, defense minister Fumio Kyuma said that Bush was wrong to start the war.
The reduction of British forces makes the U.S. surge all the more perplexing, and it will most likely fuel public sentiment in this country to follow suit. We urge the president to seek Blair’s advice.
