British Iraq "Withdrawal" a Microcosm of Obama's Bad Iraq Policy

Posted by Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports at 10:00 AM on April 30, 2009.

The British “withdrawal” from Basra, Iraq is, in a way, a microcosm of Obama’s overall Iraq approach of downsizing and rebranding the occupation. While the British are framing this as an end to “combat operations,” they are simultaneously launching a smaller-scale military training effort and escalating neoliberal economic initiatives.
“Today Iraq is a success story,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. “We owe much of that to the efforts of British troops. Our mission has not always been an easy one, many have said that we would fail. Britain can be proud of our legacy that we leave there.” Brown’s line is similar to the cosigning of Bush’s Iraq lies by Obama earlier this year at Camp Lejeune. Iraq is not a success story, nor is it an operation to be proud of. Anyone who calls the deaths of a million people a success is sick. Moreover, violence in Iraq is escalating right now and the humanitarian situation is absolutely dire.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, meanwhile, is in London where has been meeting with UK officials and corporations. As The Guardian reports, “Maliki and the oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, will use the visit to try to cash in on the country’s improved security situation when they meet representatives of about 250 companies – including Shell and Rolls-Royce – to discuss opportunities for trade and investment.”

According to The Independent, Brown “said negotiations would be opened on an investment promotion and protection agreement while a review of export credit guarantees would be brought forward. ‘This is a clear message for companies worldwide: Iraq is open for business,’” declared Brown.

As the British troops were holding their ceremony in Basra on Thursday, Maliki told a conference of investors in London “that his government is working to amend Iraqi law to allow foreign investors to own land” in Iraq, saying, “We need more than at any other time in the past a vibrant private sector and we (the government) will see to it that all obstacles are removed for the private sector.”

This, perhaps, is the success of which Brown speaks.
But, remember, we’ve heard all of this before -- from the necons six years ago who painted the “new” Iraq as the second coming of the free market Christ. Now, it is the neoliberals’ turn to declare Iraq open for business.
While the British combat forces prepare to exit Basra, Britain is shifting its focus to two primary areas: training the Iraqi military and, in the words of Brown, “protecting the oil supplies of Iraq.” Like Obama, Brown is moving toward a policy of a smaller “footprint” wherein U.S. and British “advisors” and “trainers” essentially coordinate operations of Iraqi forces, while protecting Western corporate interests. “About 300 Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel will continue to train Iraqi naval forces at the port of Umm Qasr,” according to The Guardian. The substantial U.S. residual forces and mercenaries will always be on stand-by to use mass force if the new experiment gets too out of control for the Brits. The British base at Bara Airport, after all, has been turned over to U.S. control, not to the Iraqis.
The other serious question looming is that the British have been consistent users of private security forces. What is the withdrawal plan for these? The U.S. plan is to likely increase the use of these forces and the British haven’t laid out what their plan is. But here is a fact: many of the biggest mercenary firms in Iraq from day one have been based out of the UK. These companies have consistently had more personnel in Iraq than the official British military. There has been no mention of these companies withdrawing. In fact, in early 2007, when Tony Blair first began discussing British withdrawals from Iraq, media reports emerged that the British government was considering sending in private security companies to “fill the gap left behind.”

Note: This evening, I am going to be on BBC World Television as part of its primetime coverage of the “end” of Britain’s “combat operations” in Iraq. I am told that the program will be on BBC America as well.

Tagged as: iraq, uk, tony blair, britain, gordon brown, nouri al-maliki, british military, guardian, umm qasr, the independent

Jeremy Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.