Tensions with the US sharpen as Britain begins handover of Basra

The divergence over Iraq between Britain and the United States was given graphic expression by President Bush’s unannounced visit to Iraq yesterday. Bush held a “war council” that included top White House and Pentagon officials along with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, whose report on the US “surge” is to be delivered to Congress next week.

Petraeus is expected to deliver a positive verdict. In an interview with the Australian on August 30, he said sending 20,000 additional American troops into Iraq had succeeded in weakening militant groups and reducing religiously and ethnically motivated killings by 75 percent compared to the previous year. The attempt to portray the deteriorating situation in Iraq in such glowing terms makes the Britain’s pull-out from Basra, where it has effectively lost control, all the more damaging for Bush.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended the pull-out from Basra Palace, stressing that British troops stood ready to “re-intervene” if required. But the Mahdi Army of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr claimed victory over the British and local people interviewed by the media agreed with this assessment.

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