SENIOR American defence officials have ordered a halt to transatlantic bickering over the British withdrawal from Basra.
According to sources in Washington, a “very senior defence figure” told the joint chiefs of staff, the heads of America’s armed forces, that the “sniping against Britain must cease”.
He reminded them that not only was Britain one of the few allies on which the United States had been able to depend throughout the six years since the September 11 attacks, but it was the only one with war-fighting capability.
After a damaging row that had seen former generals from both sides trading insults about each other’s approaches in Iraq, the relative peace and quiet that descended over Basra last week as British troops withdrew from the Basra Palace complex on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab scarcely suggested defeat, despite the celebratory gunfire of the Mahdi Army.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2414597.ece