Sinbad sails home

 

 

As Private Luke Simpson of the Yorkshire Regiment of the British Army was being put to final rest, the time had come, perhaps, for Sinbad to sail home. After all, the operation of normalising the southern Iraqi city of Basra was named after the legendary hero who is said to have begun his voyage from Basra. Like Simpson, 132 British Armed Forces personnel have died serving in Iraq since March 2003. After resisting for long, demands from the British public that troops from Iraq be withdrawn, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has finally given up, announcing that some of the troops serving in Iraq may return home within weeks. According to reports, almost half of the 7,000 British troops are expected to be withdrawn before Christmas.

Analysts now believe that the British troop withdrawal is going to make American President George Bush’s life difficult since he is making a case for sending more troops to Iraq. Bush had announced last month that he will be sending over 20,000 additional soldiers to Baghdad to contain the violence witnessed between the Sunni and Shiite factions.

Where are British troops?

In operational roles: Northern Ireland: 8,050 Iraq: 7,100 Afghanistan: 6,000 Bosnia and Kosovo: 820 UN missions: 290

Source: British Ministry of Defence

On its part, the White House tried to play down the significance of the troop withdrawal. “While the United Kingdom is maintaining a robust force in southern Iraq, we are pleased that conditions in Basra have improved sufficiently that they are able to transition more control to the Iraqis,” remarked a White House spokesperson. Australian Prime Minister John Howard also played defiant, ruling out a withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. In the coming months, the British troops are supposed to consolidate their base in Basra and in some cases hand them over to Iraqi administration. This is aimed at enabling the British troops to focus on training Iraqi police.

Occupying Iraq has hurt the political prospects of Tony Blair. His party has lost seats in local elections. But it seems that George Bush has not learnt any lesson from his British counterpart. Bush, who spoke to Blair a day before the British Prime Minister announced the withdrawal, painted it all rosy. “President Bush sees this as a sign of success and what is possible for us once we help the Iraqis deal with the sectarian violence in Baghdad,” Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said. The question is: if this is a sign of success, why is the US sending in more troops? This is one of numerous questions Bush will have to answer one day. Some day.