Prime Minister Brown is reluctant to anger the White House by pulling all the British troops out

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The unwinnable war in Iraq (and why no one is pulling out)

Dyer, Gwynne
Editorial & Opinion - Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Updated @ 6:31:33 AM

"The British have given up and they know they will be leaving Iraq soon," said Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mehdi army, the country's most powerful militia group, in an interview with The Independent.

"They have realized this is not a war they should be fighting or one they can win."

Every word he said is true and most senior officers in the British army know it. As Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the British army, said last year, Britain "should get out (of Iraq) some time soon."

Being prime minister is hard. Gordon Brown waited 10 years for Tony Blair to pass on the prime ministership, and no sooner does he finally inherit the job than he has to find a way to pull the British troops out of Iraq in the middle of the American "surge." snip

Forty-one British soldiers have died in Iraq already this year, compared to 29 in the whole of last year. The deaths are wasted and it's high time to go home, but Prime Minister Brown is reluctant to anger the White House by pulling all the British troops out before the Americans are ready to leave.