THE MESSAGE from Britain is mixed. Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced plans to pull 1,600 British troops out of southern Iraq soon and 500 more by late summer. The pullout will leave about 5,000 British troops in the mostly Shiite southern provinces.
But soon after Blair’s announcement, the Royal Army announced a troop movement in the opposite direction. Prince Harry, younger brother of royal heir Prince William, will be sent to Iraq with his unit. Lt. Wales, as he will be known, will command a small group of armored cars. The general staff said Wales will be treated as much as possible like any other junior officer.
Blair’s decision comes as President George Bush prepares to increase by 20,000 the number of U.S. combat troops in the Baghdad area. Many commentators saw Blair’s announcement as a rebuke to Bush and a signal that Bush’s “coalition of the willing” was about to lose its second-largest and most loyal member.
The deployment of the prince apparently carries no message for the White House, other than that the British plan to continue doing their job.
Drawing comparisons between Bush’s buildup and Blair’s withdrawal is tricky. By many measures, the United States and Britain are not even fighting in the same Iraq.
The British troops are stationed in an area that is overwhelmingly Shia. Shiites control the Iraqi government, so there is little anti-government activity in the south. The U.S. troops, on the other hand, are in Baghdad and the Sunni provinces to the north. That puts the Americans squarely in the middle of the Iraqi civil war.
The British are pulling troops out of areas that, nominally at least, are quiet and law-abiding. The United States is sending more troops to areas where the level of violence has been steadily rising.
So the British withdrawal makes some sense. But the fact that the troops are being called home and not sent north to bolster U.S. troops is a clear signal that the British have no intention of staying in Iraq forever. They will do their job and then pack up and go.
That message puts extra pressure on the United States to get the job done in the north.
American troops cannot still be dodging bullets and bombs in Baghdad when the last British unit goes home.