British withdrawal could lead to a bloodbath, Iraq minister warns

[cal04]

Britain is a great power that must not “run away” from its responsibilities in Iraq, the Iraqi Foreign Minister has told The Times.

Criticising Britain’s recent “lack of engagement” in the southern city of Basra, Hoshyar Zebari has forecast catastrophic consequences if London and Washington decide prematurely to withdraw their troops from Iraq: a bloodbath as the country breaks up, neighbours sucked into a regional conflict, an oil crisis and a new terrorist haven far deadlier than Afghanistan.

“I am worried, absolutely worried,” Mr Zebari said yesterday as British troops prepared to withdraw from central Basra and the US Congress debates whether Iraq – where 3,600 American soldiers have met their end over the past four years – should be written off as a lost cause. “The stakes are very, very high for us as Iraqis, for the US and Britain, and for stability and security in the region.”

Mr Zebari, 54, a Kurd who studied at the University of Essex and has been Foreign Minister since the removal of Saddam Hussein, said that he was relaxed about this week’s expected withdrawal of 600 British troops from the beleaguered Basra Palace to join 5,000 compatriots at their airport base outside the city. That was merely a symbolic move, he said, though he agreed that it could be regarded in the Arab world as a defeat.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2351298.ece

[angstlessk]

1. So we are now all puppets of the Iraq government? who gets to decide who goes and who stays?

Wow..thought Israel was a bad partner..now we got Iraq too deciding foreign policy for England and America?

[yurbud]

4. if they were truly sovereign, they should decide when we leave but we could always go sooner

[bemildred]

2. What does this moron think has been going on the last few years? nt

[yurbud]

3. he means a bloodbath of the puppets