Britain will take troops out of Iraq regardless of US, says PM

[Greeby]

Source: The Independent

Gordon Brown has paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by telling George Bush he would not delay their exit in order to show unity with the United States.

After four hours of one-to-one talks with the US President at his Camp David retreat, Mr Brown told a joint press conference he would make a Commons statement in October on the future of the 5,500 British troops in the Basra region.

The Bush administration, under mounting domestic pressure to produce an exit strategy from Iraq, has been nervous that a full British withdrawal would add to the criticism. But Mr Brown made clear - and President Bush accepted - that Britain would go its own way, even if that gave the impression the two countries were diverging.

Mr Brown's willingness to pursue an independent British policy in Iraq will be seen as an important break with Tony Blair. Mr Brown said the two leaders had had "full and frank discussions" - diplomatic code for some disagreements.

Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2819582.ece

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Curiouser and curioser

[Exiled in America]

1. Strange..... interesting..... hopeful.... maybe...

[trashcanistanista]

2. Take that!

GW*!! Good for them.

[Vidar]

7. Unfortunately, I know how you feel.

[DurShar]

3. Fuel this fire.

That article just fueled this Anti-War fire.

[Kolesar]

6. Welcome to the Democratic Underground message board!

:hi: I see you are from Ohio too

[DurShar]

13. Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah I am just west of Columbus.

[tabasco]

4. Wisely unassing the quagmire.

Traitors Bu$h/Cheney want to keep our troops in the bloody quagmire forever.

Profits are booming for the war profiteers!!

[legin]

5. I’m a trifle suspicious…

britain withdraws 5,500 troops from Iraq and transfers them to Afghanistan.

This frees up 5,500 u.s. troops in Afghanistan to be transferred to southern Iraq to replace the british.

Not a great deal has changed apart from britain having a greater responsibility for Afghanistan making it more difficult to pull out of the ‘coalition’, which is probably the point.

[Supersedeas]

15. the Iraq occupation takes on the image of a solely American Empirial endeavor

[Vidar]

8. Good for Brown.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Hope it happens! Wait and see...

But I'm glad that he's having 'full and free discussions' with Bush - wonder if the F word was used!

[gratuitous]

10. Ah, "full and frank" discussions

Yeah, that is diplomat speak for "disagreements" were aired. Probably none too nicely, either. But the resulting story makes it sound oh-so-harmonious, doesn't it? See, that's the sort of thing that comes about from real governance, instead of Republican agitprop.

[KiraBS]

11. The British Media are don't see a great new friendship here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2138054,00.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=MSU1XI2BJG4GJQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/31/nbrown131.xml
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/07/31/brown-and-bush-freedom-fighters-89520-19545464/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/07/30/brown-to-lead-darfur-fight-89520-19541155/

Brown appears to be sticking to his own agenda here. This could get interesting.

[T_i_B]

14. There's been so much spin in the press over this visit

That I think that it's perfectly fair to hold fire until we see some concrete action from Gordon Brown on US relations. As it is it's impossible to gauge anything from the press coverage, which has skewed things any way that it can be skewed.

[conspirator]

12. Still skeptic. Maybe brown just wants to rest the troops before going to Iran n/t