Blair under new pressure to set date for pulling troops out of Iraq

British forces in Iraq face increased "ferocity of terrorism" as the country heads into the most crucial stage in its political process, the Defence Secretary John Reid said. His warning came as Tony Blair was under renewed pressure yesterday to set a deadline for withdrawing troops in the wake of British forces' clashes with Iraqi police in Basra. Mr Reid ruled out any reduction in troop strength and defended the decision to rescue two SAS soldiers, who had been arrested by Iraqi police. The arrest led to British forces coming under attack, with soldiers engulfed in flames from petrol bombs. The Defence Secretary said the rise in violence was a direct result of the political progress: "You can measure the success of the politics by the ferocity of the terrorism. As the elections come up we will see more of this."

Yesterday, the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, criticised the rescue, in which the wall of a police compound was flattened by a British armoured vehicle, as "a very unfortunate development". The Iraqi government launched an inquiry into the incident. Critics seized on the events in Basra as evidence of the need for a defined exit strategy for British troops. The Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said: "The events of the past 24 hours confirm what many of us have worried now over many months - that Iraq is moving more in the direction of civil war."

Mr Kennedy said he had repeatedly urged the Prime Minister not to commit troops without a clear exit strategy. "Now, of course, as the situation tragically has got so much worse within Iraq itself, the need for that exit strategy - and for Parliament to be discussing properly and publicly that exit strategy - becomes even more essential." The former international development secretary Clare Short, who resigned in protest over the war, said: "We should negotiate an end to the occupation. They are all saying 'no' because it's such a mess we cannot leave now. But the occupation is a problem now.

The Association of Muslim Scholars has said that they would negotiate and call an end to the resistance if we set a date for a withdrawal. Unless we withdraw, it is going to get worse." Alan Simpson, of the left-wing Campaign Group of Labour MPs, said: "The message is this: it is the time to go. It is a horrible mess, worse than Northern Ireland because no one pretends that this is our country. When you get army personnel dressed as Arabs armed with automatic weapons, everyone will see this as the role of agent provocateurs. It has just ripped our credibility into tatters. Tony Blair should bring an end to this chaos."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article314031.ece

for us to. There won't be any more support from a major force, and the Repugs against the war will grow... this probably won't happen until after 06 though. Bummer... ;-)

gee there's a plan