Britain to Review Troop Levels in Iraq (5000 more to Iraq)

[Noordam]

September 4, 2003
Britain to Review Troop Levels in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 4:21 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon has ordered a review of British troop levels in Iraq following weeks of increased insecurity and attacks, the Ministry of Defense said Thursday.

The announcement followed a published report that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had proposed the deployment of 5,000 more British troops in Iraq.

<cut>

Lewis Moonie, a former defense minister in Blair's government, said he would not be surprised if more troops are sent to Iraq. He told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that it was important to discourage any feeling that the situation was ``bogged down.''

Asked how he thought governing Labor Party lawmakers would react to such a decision, Moonie said he believed that ``there would be a general feeling that if we are going to complete the job, it has got to be done properly and that if this is what it takes, this is what must be done.''

<more at article>

[Spentastic]

1. Disgrace

They have royally messed this up and now they want the troops to sort out their mistakes. If I was in the armed forces I'd be sorely tempted to tell them where to stick it.

[saigon68]

2. Poodle Boy marches on.

At one time in 1968 the U.S. had 585,000 troops in Viet-Nam, when asked what it would take to make the place "Safe for Democracy" Wastemoreland replied "250,000 more troops will do it" -- at that time Lyndon basically resigned and the rest is history

THEY CALL IT MISSION CREEP.---Throwing more troops at a hopeless cause. !!!!!!

[Noordam]

3. But Poodle Boy is not trusted at home

and to say he will be sending more troops to die for WhistleAss is crazy.

[mikeytherat]

4. There were over 40,000 British toops in Iraq...

but the current level is about 12,000

http://www.cfr.org/background/background_iraq_security.php

Now they want to send some back? Why did the Brits remove those troops, only to send them back?

Piss-poor planning, perhaps?

mikey_the_rat

[hussar]

5. More troops, what troops ?

Britain has been cutting the armed forces for years and years, the regiment I was in back in the 70's is now amalgamated with another. They are using more and more civilian contractors to do the work that was done previously by troops, all in the name of saving money.
Some of the troops already in Iraq are TA volunteers, send more troops from an already disillusioned military ? they can't recruit now and the future looks even bleaker for the British military after this colossal f@#k up.