US and British officials erupt at one another over Basra chaos

Ahead of the Bush Administration's report to Congress, the Republicans are quick to claim successes in Anbar Province and cite them as vindication that the troop escalation is working.  But within the past several weeks, the traditional media began reporting on the growing crisis in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.  Shiite factions are battling one another for control over part of Iraq's oil infrastructure.  On top of that, the British, who are stationed in southern Iraq, will begin withdrawing at the end of this year.  That means US Generals will try to get the most out of the Brits until they leave.

During a recent meeting between US and British commanders, signs of frustration were evident.  US military leaders left the meeting irate, complaining to the media that the Brits were trying to lecture them about counter-insurgency tactics:

For much of the last four years, the Americans in the room would havelistened carefully, used to deferring to their British colleagues' longexperience in Northern Ireland. This time, however, eyes that wouldonce have been attentive simply rolled.

Few were in the mood for a lecture about Britishsuperiority, when they fear that Downing Street's planned pull-out fromBasra will squander any progress from their own hard-fought "troopsurge" strategy elsewhere.

"It's insufferable forChrist's sake," said one senior figure closely involved in US militaryplanning. "He comes on and he lectures everybody in the room about howto do a counter-insurgency. The guys were just rolling their eyeballs.The notorious Northern Ireland came up again. It's pretty frustrating.It would be okay if he was best in class, but now he's worst in class.Everybody else's area is getting better and his is getting worse."

Themeeting, called by General David Petraeus, the senior US officer whohas the task of managing the surge, is emblematic of what is fastbecoming a minor crisis in Anglo-American military relations.

Another US military official even had the audacity to point the finger at the British government for not sending in enough troops to begin with, as if to ignore a similar strategic misstep of our own:

A senior US officer familiar with Gen Petraeus'sthinking said: "The short version is that the Brits have lost Basra, ifindeed they ever had it. Britain is in a difficult spot because of thelack of political support at home, but for a long time - more than ayear - they have not been engaged in Basra and have tried to avoidcasualties.

"They did not have enough troops there even before they started cutting back. The situation is beyond their control.

Because this story was reported in the UK's Telegraph newspaper, it will only add to the domestic political pressure on Gordon Brown's government to follow through with their withdrawal plans. 

Even more significant, it underscores how isolated the Bush Administration truly is as it attempts to implement its neocon foreign policy doctrine.  Forget the fact that we can't get along with France.  We can't even hold a meeting with our strongest ally in the world without it exploding into some political controversy.  The US has never been this much on its own in the world community in more than one-hundred years.  Generations from now, that will be the legacy of this Administration.

Comments

[granny]

"The US has never been this much on its own in the world community in more than one-hundred years. Generations from now, that will be the legacy of this Administration."

Amen

Nice piece