New British PM follows Bush's lead

During a televised debate last night, incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who will take the reigns in about two months, is dead-set against removing British troops from Iraq:

"Whatever the divisions have been ... it would be the wrong time now to just say: 'Send troops home now'," he said.

"We'removing to a new stage in Iraq," he said, because Iraq had taken oversecurity in three of the four provinces that Britain took charge ofafter the 2003 US-led invasion.

A new stage?  Does he mean turning the corner?

Speaking of turning the corner, Kenneth Pollack, a scholar at the center-left Brookings Institution, predicts President Bush will stand by his Iraq policy until the very end:

"I don't think that Bush has any interest in giving up on Iraq,"Pollack, a former CIA analyst and White House policymaker, said in aninterview. "I think he's going to ride the surge until he's out ofoffice."

Gordon Brown had better think twice before following Bush over the cliff on Iraq, otherwise he may find himself in the same political predicament that ruined Tony Blair's career.