MoD to pull troops out of Iraq within a year (Telegraph)

Source: London Sunday Telegraph

MoD to pull troops out of Iraq within a year

By Sean Rayment and Patrick Hennessy, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:40am BST 03/06/2007

Military chiefs are drawing up plans to withdraw all British
troops from Iraq within 12 months.

A fresh timetable, which would see a unilateral withdrawal
from the war-torn country by next May, will be presented to
Gordon Brown within weeks.

It is understood that when Mr Brown becomes prime minister
later this month, he will be told by defence chiefs that Britain
should withdraw from Iraq in "quick order" and concentrate
on fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

-snip-

A senior military official told The Sunday Telegraph: "Britain
is not physically capable of fighting wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq at the same time. The question is: which do we give up?
The Government and the defence chiefs have decided that
we should give up Iraq.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/03/wirq03.xml

BRITISH commanders in Iraq have drawn up plans to allow Gordon Brown to withdraw almost all UK troops by the end of the year.

The British commander in southern Iraq, Major-General Jonathan Shaw, produced a “commander’s tactical advice” several weeks ago, senior defence sources said last night. The advice was written for Lieutenant-General Nick Houghton, the chief of joint operations, in London after the Ministry of Defence asked for options that could be presented to Brown when he takes over as prime minister.

Brown is due to fly to Iraq to be briefed by Shaw and other commanders on when Britain’s 5,500 troops should be pulled out of Iraq.

Shaw’s “tactical advice” was endorsed by the most senior British officer in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Graeme Lamb, who is deputy coalition commander and based in Baghdad. The advice referred to UK success in training the Iraq security forces in the south of the country, but is also understood to have highlighted the danger of staying in Basra for too long.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1876221.ece