Posted by Cockney Robin |
Damozel expects me to believe that she is "surprised" that there has been little discussion in the U.S. press of Britain's Iraq Commission Report, released last week. As I've had ample opportunity to notice that the American press quite frequently takes little notice of what's happening anywhere else, I am less surprised, though I suppose it is a bit odd that there is so little apparent attention to recommendations being offered to the US's ally-in-chief. Perhaps the US media doesn't consider it a story unless and until it begins to have a clear effect on US policy(?)
As BN-Politics discussed in some depth last week, this cross-party report was designed to offer guidance to Gordon Brown on how the UK should proceed in Iraq. Many of its recommendations were similar to those of the US Iraq Study Group. Co-chair Margaret Jay published an opinion piece in The Independent on Sunday last week which discussed some of the findings, with particular emphasis on the importance of providing Iraq with initial support (and with launching "a diplomatic offensive" while preparing to withdraw British troops as soon as feasible, though the report didn't recommend setting a definite withdrawal date. (Margaret Jay; BN-Politics)
So: while your Democrats and Republicans while away the lazy days of summer bickering over when---or whether---to vote on the withdrawal of troops in Iraq (BN-Politics), the new PM is receiving advice that this is exactly what he must do, for the sake of Britain and for the sake of Iraq.
And part of the guidance definitely includes a recommendation that Brown be what I believe very tactful Americans might call "more proactive" with respect to Britain's role. And while co-chair Baroness Jay (a member of the Labour party) chose, on the whole, to accentuate the positive in her piece, co-chair Lord Ashdown (Liberal Democrat), in speaking to BBC1 concerning the Commission's findings, was both more outspoken and more pessimistic, saying that the goals of the coalition had been "ridiculously overambitious."
"We committed the cardinal sin of these interventions, which is to have ridiculously overambitious aims; to re-create Washington in Baghdad, to recreate a fully-functioning western-style democracy in a Middle Eastern country." (The Yorkshire Post)
Respecting the withdrawal of British forces, Lord Ashdown---politically no friend to Tony Blair---emphasised that withdrawal should occur once the Iraqi troops are prepared to take oven from them, rather than attempt to stabilize/secure Iraq (whatever that would entail):
Our withdrawal rate should be determined not by the security situation - which allows the militias, the insurgents, to determine our withdrawal - but by the state of training of the Iraqi forces," Lord Ashdown said on the BBC TV AM programme.
"If we can no longer suppress the violence, we are in a sense a target for the violence," he added. "Therefore, we need to hand this process over to the Iraqis.
"Will things get worse for a bit? They may but they are probably going to anyway. The evidence was that if we cannot suppress the violence we cannot prevent it getting worse. What we need to do is train up the Iraqis."(The Independent on Sunday)
Baroness Jay said many of the same things, but also focused on ways that Britain---aided by the UN---could provide help to the fledgling government. (Margaret Jay)
Lord Ashdown said that Tony Blair had not used his "political leverage" with Bush. (BBC News)
The Shadow Foreign Secretary (i.e.,the Tory Party's Foreign Secretary) followed the line of US Republicans by blaming the Iraqis currently in power for not pulling a government together with sufficient speed. William Hague said,
"Iraqi politicians themselves are still not doing enough to achieve the crucial reconciliation within their country....That is really what now their future depends on, because I don't think there is any military solution to the problems of Iraq still available."(BBC News)
As the Tories initially supported Blair's intervention in Iraq, standing behind him even when his own party did not, I'd take this as a pretty good indicator (if I hadn't been paying attention to all the many, many others) that the UK is on the way out and sooner rather than later.
BN-POLITICS POSTINGS
- Is Reid to Blame for Polarizing Congress on Iraq?
- Note to Congress and My Fellow Democrats: There are NO Easy Paths Out of Iraq.
- New Roadmaps Out of Iraq.
LINKS.
- Brown offered Lord Ashdown a Cabinet job (The Independent)
- Pull troops out now and stand up to Bush, inquiry tells Brown (The Independent on Sunday)
- "No Easy Way" for Iraq Pull-Out (BBC News)
- UK Iraq commission: 'Only painful' options left in Iraq (The Raw Story)
- Margaret Jay: With the UN's Help, Britain Can Do A Lot for Iraq
- Ashdown "Pessimistic" Over Iraq (The Yorkshire Post)
- AMERICAblog, UK War Commission to Brown: Pull Out Now
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2773189.ece
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2686854.ece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6899589.stm
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/UK_Iraq_commission_Only_painful_options_0715.html
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2770990.ece
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/latest-national-news?articleid=3031647
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