“We are not defeated,” a leading British commanding general huffed last week on CNN. “We pulled out.”
October 13, 2007 7:02 am IraqFirst, early last spring, the 5,000 troops remaining of the 45,000 original British contingent, which was the largest command outside of the American one, started pulling back. No more did they hold near-total sway over Basra, Iraq’s single maritime exit to the world.
Slowly they withdrew to a few select bases and the streets they had in the beginning so masterfully controlled, as Shiite Islamic militants took over the south. Then, this fall, the British announced that half of their troops would be removed by next spring and the other half would be stationed outside the city at the Basra Air Station.
In case anyone hadn’t noticed, this sad little military minuet means that there is no longer a major non-Iraqi force in the south. The highway between Baghdad and Kuwait, with its window on the Persian Gulf, is the only land bridge out of Iraq for American troops — and it has now virtually passed into hostile Shiite militia hands.
“We are not defeated,” a leading British commanding general huffed last week on CNN. “We pulled out. We could have stayed a long time.” (And I’ve got a bridge over the Tigris that I’d like to sell him.)