Miliband:We will decide when UK troops leave Iraq

Source: The Independent

The Bush administration will not have a veto over the Government's plans to pull Britain's troops out of Iraq, ministers have made clear.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said decisions about troop withdrawals would be taken independently in the "British national interest" and stressed the situation facing British forces in Basra was "very different" to the one facing their American counterparts in Baghdad.

Downing Street backed his stance as Gordon Brown came under fire from critics of the war for refusing to set a timetable for Britain's exit from Iraq. The Prime Minister will make a detailed statement in October on the future of the 5,500 troops deployed in Iraq.

The issue is highly sensitive for US-UK relations. The Bush administration, which may press on with its "surge" in Baghdad after a review next month, does not want Britain to send a conflicting signal and there are fears in Washington the US may have to send more troops to southern Iraq to fill the gap left by a British pull-out.

Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2903557.ece

The Texas Mafia has left the building and the coalition of the willing are all leaving Iraq! It sure must be lonely at the top.

We should never have gone in the first place.