Blair took orders from Bush to until the very end

Between now and the end of the year, a significant number of British soldiers stationed in Basra will leave Iraq.  But what many people did not was that the Brits were originally supposed to begin their withdrawal earlier this year.  According to the BBC, President Bush stepped in and talked Blair out of it:

The withdrawal of British troops from Basra wasdelayed by five months due to political pressure from the US, a UKmilitary commander in Iraq has said.

Brig James Bashall told the Daily Telegraph that apull-out in April "would have been the right thing to do but politicsprevented that".

He said the exit from the Basra Palace base was held up because the "Americans asked us to stay for longer".

An MoD spokesman insisted the move took place when conditions were right.

It reinforces the suspicion of many British citizens that Tony Blair never had his own foreign policy, and allowed himself to be manipulated by US special interests, even to a fault.