US says ready to step back into Basra as British pull out

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military is ready to intervene in southern Iraq to quell any unrest as British forces prepare to pull out from their last base in the oil port of Basra, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Press reports in London suggest that the British departure and handover of security control to Iraqi forces may be imminent, although the official line is that it will take place before the end of the year.

US forces will not allow any security advances in southern Iraq to be abandoned, Brigadier General Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning at the Department of Defense, told reporters.

As requirements on the ground dictate, "they will reposition forces with the battlefield geography in mind so that they don't give up gains that they've made in different areas, including in Basra and the south," he said.

"As the UK forces reposition ... all that will be taken into account as well as what the security needs for each region are," Sherlock said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070830/pl_afp/iraqunrestusbritain

[frogcycle]

1. breaking?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1702541&mesg_id=1702541

[msongs]

2. the germans occupied italy after the collapse of mussolini nt

[sofa king]

3. This is really not good.

Over a year ago I predicted here on DU that the invasion of Iran would begin as soon as the Brits got out of the way in Basra. It's an easy prediction to make. Just like Admiral Fischer predicted that the First World War would begin when Germany completed the widening of the Kiel Canal (and it did), America can't invade Iran until the British get out of the way in Basra.

Combined with the corporate media's scheduled banging of the war drums against Iran, Americans taking Iranian hostages as they did early this year, the Bushehr nuclear plant scheduled to go online within weeks, and someone banking that the world economy is going to tank within a month, I think it's time to start getting proactive.

There are some other things you ought to know. The Iranian plant at Bushehr won't be able to produce weapons-grade nuclear materials for years, if ever, and that's if they get the uranium from Russia, which is currently doubtful. It's bullshit, just like the last time.

There won't be any airstrikes, except to prepare the way for a ground invasion. What's really going on is the Bushehr nuclear plant is sitting on top of 38 billion barrels of oil, just about the only major oil discovery that's actually panning out this century. China has major deals with Iran to develop that oil, so if we go in, China might decide to put up 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars for sale, which will kill the dollar and send our economy into the toilet. Maybe it's China placing all those put options as a hedge, but my money is on insider trading from Dick Cheney's pals.

The hostage-taking by the United States is a provocation, but the important thing to remember is that it doesn't matter what Iran does so long as the knuckle-draggers in Idaho think that Iran has been provoked. Then it's just a matter of setting up a false flag operation, and in we're gonna go.

There are only two provinces in Iran that Dick Cheney wants or cares about, and those are Bushehr and Khuzestan, because that's where most of Iran's 100 billion-plus barrels of oil and natural gas reserves are. Militarily it will also be necessary to neutralize and possibly occupy Iranian territory in the Straight of Hormuz. Bushehr and Khuzestan also happen to be relatively flat and conducive to the rolling armored warfare in which America excels.

But within a couple of weeks of stealing Iran's oil, a million crazy-ass rednecks with AK-47s are going to start pouring out of the mountains looking for any American they can human-wave attack, and I'll bet you anything Uncle Dick hasn't thought nearly as much about that. This war is going to be a bloodbath, maybe not for our side, but certainly for the Iranians, and Russia and China may be forced to back them against us.

We must stop this, or America is fuckin' doomed. Call your Congresscritters. Plan civil disobedience. Be prepared. Keep an eye on Jerome Hauer. And pray.

[legin]

4. About 7000 troops

according to the 'Daily Telegraph' for what that is worth.

The politicians in britain have 'honoured' the process with a bit of beaucratic jargon, they call it 'backfilling'.