Didn't Bush's new poodle in the UK Gordon Brown promise he was reducing his troops in Iraq?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/mostpopular.var.2169185.mostviewed.no_early_return_from_iraq_for_our_soldiers.php

No early return from Iraq for our soldiers

By Deborah Lewis

EAST Lancashire soldiers' hopes of returning home early from war-torn Iraq have been dashed following an escalation in violence.

The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, including men and women from Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn, Burnley and Pendle, flew out to Basra in November for a six month peace-keeping tour.

A month earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown had said that the number of British troops in Iraq would be reduced in the new year, following the handover of power to native forces in December.

A hundred soldiers from the First Battalion of the Duke of Lancaster's returned early in January, and their fellow 500 troops had hoped to be following them by now.

But an increase in violence has led the plan to cut troop numbers to be halted, Defence Secretary Des Browne told the House of Commons this week.