Brits Declare Victory In Iraq And Go Home

Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a visit to Iraq and announced that everything was so shipshape in Basra and the rest of southern Iraq that British troops will be ending all combat operations within two weeks. After a few more months of training Iraqi forces they will leave the country entirely.

“The Prime Minister of Iraq has asked me to pass on his thanks to you for helping to rebuild the democracy of Iraq.

“This is because of the operations over the last month that you have been involved in.

“The security situation has not only improved, but he is able to tell me he will now be recommending a move to a provisional Iraqi control within two weeks.

Back in 2003 we heard a lot about how the Brits, with their soft power projection and soccer skills knew more about ‘nation building’ than those clumsy Yanks with their Kevlar helmets and vests, always shooting first like cowboys.

Well, it doesn’t look like that worked out so well. It seems a group of wannabe Taliban like militia groups are terrorizing the locals on a daily basis.

On her first day at Basra University this year a man came up to Zeena, a 21-year-old Christian woman, and three other Christian girls and ordered them to cover their heads with a hijab, or Islamic headscarf.

“We didn't listen to him, and thought he might just be some extremist student representing only himself,” she said. The next day Zeena and two of her friends returned to class with uncovered heads.

This time a man in the black clothes of the Shia militia stopped them at the entrance and took them aside. “He said, 'We asked you yesterday to wear a hijab, so why are you and your friends not covering your hair?'. He was talking very aggressively and I was scared,” Zeena recalled.

The girls explained that they were Christians and that their faith did not call for headscarves. “He said: 'Outside this university you are Christian and can do what you want; inside you are not. Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately',” Zeena recalled. Terrified, the girls ran home. They now wear the headscarf all the time.

The Brits have come a long way since General Napier’s day. Or Churchill’s. Or Thostaer’s.

posted by DrewM. at 11:42 PM

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