Scrap Basra police and start again orders MoD

DEFENCE Secretary John Reid is planning to scrap the 25,000-strong police force in southern Iraq and replace it with a new military-style unit capable of maintaining law and order.

Reid ordered a root-and-branch review of security in the troubled province following last week's disastrous clashes between British troops and Iraqi police.

The violence has also led to the scrapping of a detailed plan that could have seen UK forces withdrawn by May next year. Instead, it now seems certain Prime Minister Tony Blair will have to keep British troops in the country until 2007 at the earliest.

The sudden U-turn on Britain's military commitment to Iraq has caused anger and despair in military circles. One former defence chief told Scotland on Sunday the Iraq expedition had been a "colossal political failure".

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1990832005

control.....NOT.

Umm maybe a colossal failure of Government. it's not just a popularity contest. They are using our money and our lives.

Nor has he had that for some time now, with only 9K troops or so.

Once again UK politicians are willing ends without supplying the means. It is no surprise that this statement has caused 'anger and despair in military circles'. The British army simply does not have the manpower or resources to police Southern Iraq. As a consequence the commanders have had little choice but to rely on arrangements with local Shia leaders to maintain order. Sacking 25,000 members of the local police at this stage of proceedings, after having armed and trained them, is a recipe for disaster. It is almost certainly going to lead a huge upsurge in resentment from those who have lost their jobs. I would think an insurrection is inevitable. Of course John Reid will not have to worry about the consequences as he will be safely ensconced in his office in Westminster. It will be the troops in Iraq who will die because of his folly. The officer corps of the British army have never been keen on the Iraq adventure. I suspect that their patience is now wearing desperately thin.

British MOD was in the advanced stages of pulling out of at least 2 provinces, but now they can't do it.

This is what it is going to look like when Bush tries to turn over the rest of the county. He won't be able to do it and the question will be HOW LONG DO YOU THINK THIS CAN GO ON?

guys' out??????.......doesn't clash show Brits at fault not the Iraqi police???.....what did I miss?????

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It was always a lie, but this just points it out more blatantly.

What a big, old farce about Iraqi sovereignty! Now explain this to the Arab world about Iraqi's controlling their government and its agencies when the British government (any one of the three major coalition governments) can wake up any morning and dissolve any Iraqi government agency they wish? Wow! what a splendid arrangement!

Oh the white mans burden!

...that should help out alot.:sarcasm:

That should turn the relatively peaceful southern Iraq into the next Baghdad. But, hey it will be the Brits that take it on the chin this time.

Their blundering into Iraq never happened. Nor all the citizens who were collaterally damaged into extinction. Nor all their deliberate torture.

25K men down the memory hole with a flick of their fat fingers.

It's all OK.

They'll "start again."

How, if Western Culture is so superior, does it vomit up such degenerate humans in positions of command?

They are "keen" to get it right this time, I would say.

Beat it you pikers, possession is 10/10ths of the law

That stupid sovereignty napkin got flushed down the toilet.

Therefore, we must throw our full support to the freedom fighters that are trying to overthrow the yoke of colonialism.

US and British troops are on the same moral plane as the French Foreign Legion was Algeria.

can't put together a competent and loyal police force of Shia how in the hell are they going to do it with Sunnis? And is that 25,000 number part of Rummy's "190,000 trained Iraqis"?

Disguised insurgents gun down 5 Shiite teachers at Iraqi elementary school

Updated at 16:25 on September 26, 2005, EST.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Insurgents dragged five Shiite Muslim schoolteachers and their driver into a classroom, lined them against a wall and gunned them down Monday; slayings in Iraq's notorious Triangle of Death that reflect the enflamed sectarian divisions ahead of a crucial constitutional referendum.

The shooting was a rare attack on a school amid Iraq's relentless violence, and it was particularly stunning since the gunmen targeted teachers in a school where the children were mainly Sunnis. Elsewhere Monday, a suicide attack and roadside bombings killed 10 Iraqis and three Americans, bringing to at least 52 the number of people killed in the past two days.

The Iraqi and U.S. governments have warned that Sunni Arab insurgents are likely to increase their attacks ahead of the Oct. 15 national referendum.

Shiite leaders have called on their followers to refrain from revenge attacks against Sunnis, fearing a civil war could result, though Sunnis have accused Shiite militias of carrying out some killings of Sunni figures.

But in one of the first public calls for individual Shiites to take action, a prominent Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yaaqubi, issued a religious edict Monday allowing his followers to "kill terrorists before they kill."


snip


http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/WorldNews/w092663A.htm

so let's see, cutting loose 25K of Iraqi's police men...Hmmm, they will be pissed off at loosing a job, they will now have new skills to apply in helping out the resistance and most of all, once again, Iraqi's are made to feel that they can't take care of their own country.

This is a truly SMASHING idea. :sarcasm:

what a bunch of fuck ups*.