London Times: British troops to start leaving Iraq 'in months'

British troops to start leaving Iraq 'in months'
By Philippe Naughton

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,301650,00.jpg
(Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Tony Blair and British Ambassador William Patey in Baghdad

Britain and Iraq announced an accelerated timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from much of Iraq today during a surprise visit by Tony Blair to show his support for the country's new government.

Britain could return two southern provinces to Iraqi security control within in a few months. Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's new Prime Minister, said that he expected as many as 16 of the 18 provinces to be "Iraqi-ised" - under the control of Iraqi forces - by the end of this year.

The timetable will increase pressure on the United States to set its own deadlines for withdrawal, which Bush Administration officials have steadily refused to do for fear of handing a propaganda victory to al-Qaeda linked insurgents.

The Prime Minister landed in Baghdad's Green Zone in a Chinook Army helicopter after a hair-raising flight from Baghdad airport in which he skimmed low over the city to avoid attracting fire. He met US and British military commanders and members of the new national unity government, formed at the weekend after six months of wrangling.

Although a senior official accompanying him told reporters that the Multi-National Force in Iraq would wrap up its work in the next four years - the clearest deadline yet set by a Western official - Mr Blair refused to be drawn on the precise details of withdrawal....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2191603,00.html

him get back with the program yet? Or is this Tony trying to (belatedly) show some testosterone?

Or should I say . . . POODLE overboard!

as Britain takes troops out of Iraq... well everything's fixed there.... right??? and adds them to Afghanistan... just as its about to fall apart.