Britain bows out of a five-year war it could never have won, reads The Independent headline. This major story is unlikely to make it to the headlines in many of the US newspapers and American blogs. The grave implications of this development are either lost or are being intentionally underplayed.
“Britain handed over security in Basra province yesterday, bringing a formal end to its ill-starred attempt over almost five years to control southern Iraq. The great majority of people in Basra were glad to see the British go. ‘You can see the happiness on the faces of everyone,’ said Adel Jassam, a teacher. ‘It feels like a heavy burden has been lifted off our chests’.
“The fall of Saddam was highly popular in Basra, as it was in the rest of Shia Iraq, but while liberation was popular, occupation was not.
“The unpopularity of the British presence is underlined by the results of an opinion poll commissioned by the BBC showing that just 2 per cent of people in Basra believed that the British presence had had a positive effect on their province since 2003. Some 86 per cent said they saw British troops as having a negative impact.”
There are a few important points that emerge here: One, that the British government/democracy is responsive to public opinion within the country. Two, the government machinery is capable of taking a timely steps to prevent total disaster and resist pressures from a powerful foreign ally. Three, the British democractic system has safeguards in place to prevent commercial/corporate interests from hijacking the foreign policy.
It is inevitable that comparsions would be drawn between Britain’s recent troop withdrawl and the US administration’s continued insistence in staying put in the oil-rich desert – the two strong allies who blindly dug their necks in the hot desert for years and then aided and abetted in destabilising the sensitive region…becoming a party to the bloody mess that Iraq is today.
The Independent continues: “Britain did not suffer a military defeat in southern Iraq, though it lost 134 soldiers and never really established control of the city, the second largest in Iraq. By the time of yesterday’s handover ceremony it had 4,500 troops in Iraq, confined to Basra airport, whose numbers will be reduced to 2,500 by mid-2008.
“The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who was at the ceremony in Basra, said that Britain was not handing over ‘a land of milk and honey’. This is an understatement, since the Basra that Britain leaves behind will be controlled by semi-criminal Shia militias and political movements whose differences are often over carving up local resources….
” Britain stumbled into a small war in southern Iraq which it did not expect to fight and where its aims were always unclear. It is now stumbling out with very little achieved and its military reputation dented, after a conflict in which a victory could never have been won.” More here…
Meanwhile, the US administration’s cussed approach continues as it gets deeper and deeper into the quagmire. Here is The Washington Post story: “The United States is providing Turkey with real-time intelligence that has helped the Turkish military target a series of attacks this month against Kurdish separatists holed up in northern Iraq, including a large airstrike on Sunday, according to Pentagon officials.”
Britain has finally learnt its lesson…When will the US learn?…Oh! When will the US learn???
Meanwhile the House of Representatives on Monday passed a $515.7 billion budget compromise “to keep most of the U.S. government running through September 2008 and position President George W. Bush to obtain a good chunk of new Iraq war funds he requested,” reports Reuters.
And…”as of Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, at least 3,895 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,168 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.” More here…
Also, there is an interesting write-up “Why US Can’t Leave Iraq” by Tony Karon. Please click here to read the article…
Finally, to read the fascinating history of Basra please click here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.