UK 'has duty to redeploy troops'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3751794.stm


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Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says Britain will have failed in its duty as an ally if it does not agree to a request from America to relieve US troops in more dangerous areas of Iraq.
The US wants back-up in an area nearer to Baghdad and a final decision is expected later this week.

Mr Hoon has rejected claims that the request is political and an effort to boost George W Bush's election hopes.

He said it was designed to free up US forces for operations in other areas.


We want to make clear that the request is a military request and although it is linked to elections it is not linked to the US elections


There was a "very clear operational justification" for the request which had been received on October 10, he added.

be blair or Hoon.

Didn't come right out and say it (it was BBC...), but implied that the reason was to give UK troops a higher profile on American television -- essentially by getting killed in action and having the report carried on the news.

In the commentator's words, "It will be fascinating if this happens."

:grr: wtf? has the whole world gone mad??

from his own Labour backbenchers. He was warned by one prominent backbencher that they have been providing political cover for the government, and if they push their luck too far, it might just burst. Just as Iraq was fading down the news agenda again in Britain, it pops back up to haunt Blair. This could cost him dear.

THe film, which is surely unpopulare in the USA today, features
mostly the british military in southeast asia during the japanese
occupation of burma/siam (myanmar). Alec Guiness plays a commander
unwilling to accept anything but the Geneva convention on the
treatment of prisoners, referring to the japanese, with a classic
british sneer, as "uncivilized" if they cannot accept the convention.
(that alone should relegate the film to the archives until the
bush criminals are long forgotten but i digress..) In the
commander's attempt to rebuild his unit's confidence in the prison
camp, he is complicit with the japanese in building a strategic
bridge that is core to the japanese invasions west towards india.

Only in his dying moment at the end of the film does Obi Wan
realize "What have I done." as he falls on the demolition plunger
that destroys the bridge.... and similarly, Geoff hoon has not
quite arrived at the "What have i done" moment, but "we", the
dramatic audience, are just waiting for the final act.

if Karl Rove has a secret video of Blair molesting young boys or something. Why is he such an obedient poodle in the light of sheer lunacy?