October 16, 2004
THE TORIES AREN'T AMERICA'S ALLIES:
Tory warning over Iraq troop move: Plans to redeploy UK troops to the south of Baghdad to assist US operations have sparked warnings from opposition MPs. (BBC, 10/16/04)
On Saturday, Shadow Defence Secretary Nicholas Soames joined opposition calls for a Commons statement on the government's intentions. [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at October 16, 2004 12:08 PMBBC defence correspondent Paul Adams said it was thought an American unit had been earmarked for "combat operations" in insurgency stronghold Falluja and that the UK Government was now considering the US request for British cover.
If British troops were deployed to cover for the US, it would be somewhere to the south of Baghdad in "a reasonably benign environment", similar to the British army's base in Basra, he said.
The deployment, which would involve up to 650 personnel coming under US command, was expected to last "a few weeks".
Senior military sources had said the move was being seen as a "relatively risk-free option" and as a matter of "being a good ally to the US", he added.
BBC correspondent Claire Marshall said there was speculation the British troops could be deployed to the town of Iskandariya, 25 miles (40km) south of Baghdad, freeing up the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force currently based there to fight in Falluja.
Maybe our WW I doughboys should have changed their anthem from 'we won't come home 'till its over over there' to 'we won't go there unless its to a reasonably benign environment.'
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at October 16, 2004 1:36 PMThe Tories are mirroring the Democrats over here in that prinicpal and logic are more and more taking a back seat to saying what they think should be said to get enough people angry at Blair to vote for him, no matter what the long-term consequences turn out to be.
If there's one time I wished for Bart's gift of invective, it would be to lambaste the indescribable Nicholas Soames.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at October 16, 2004 4:17 PMSoames is remarkably related to Winston Churchill. I guess he got the drunkeness and the pomposity but not the IQ, the moral compass or the underlying courage. Perhaps he can paint. If you review the list of Members' Interests, you would find that Soames is also intimately involved in business affairs with the Saudis, not that this should be a surprise. Whenever the dead hand of the Saudis can be found, you will see people who shrink from the War on Terror.
The Conservatives won't win an election until they fundamentally transform themselves into an opposition party that stands for Britain. There are some who understand this but there is a large percentage of the parliamentary party which are anti-American, Europhile and I guess remain Tory because they like fox hunting, which is as George Bernard Shaw once said,'The unmentionable in pursuit of the inedible.'
Posted by: Bart at October 16, 2004 5:06 PM