Britian, Poland, Italy plan withdrawals from Iraq

Thousands of British troops to leave Iraq
British Defence Secretary Des Browne announced yesterday that thousands of their troops would be withdrawn by the end of next year - the invasion force of c. 46,000 is already down to c. 7,000 troops.
With typical diplomatic euphemistic aplomb, he stressed that this did not mean withdrawal but rather part and parcel of a handover plan (or did he mean hangover?).


Al-Jazeera reported the announcement, reminding us that since May 2003 126 British troops have been killed, mainly in the Southern resion of Basra, though no figures were either reported or seem to be available for the amount of Iraqi civilians they have killed.

Whether these British troops have the misfortune to be deployed to Afghanistan after a few months at home remains to be seen - best follow the example of Malcom Kendall Smith I say.


Poland to withdraw from Iraq

As the various remaining components of the U.S. War on Terror's 'Coalition of the Willing' increasingly suffer from withdrawal symptoms, the conservative Polish President Lech Kaczynski declared yesterday at a press conference that Poland will withdraw its remaining 900 soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2007. However, no specific date has been set as yet. According to the Warsaw Voice, longest running English weekly magazine in Poland, Kaczynski said "there is no [timetable] as to the withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq, other than it will not be later than the end of 2007". After initially deploying ground troops to support the U.S. invasion, Poland has since been leading an international force in the South of Baghdad.

A July pull-out for the Poles?

Newsweek Polska, a Polish weekly magazine, citing a leaked Defense Ministry document, said that PiS (Kaczynski's Law and Justice party - sounds more like 'PiSs' rather than 'Peace') were considering withdrawing its troops in July 2007.
Monsters and Critics go on to report that the Polish gvt.'s decision to hold the press conference and announce the news of withdrawal was to deny any decision had been made regarding a pullout date. Poland's hawkish Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (ironically appropriate surname huh!), married to famous U.S. author Anne Applebaum, allegedly recommended a July '07 withdrawal date. Despite the fact that the current deadline for Polish troops is the end of this year and has still not been officially extended, the gvt. has nonetheless publically supported the principle (or lack thereof) of remaining in Iraq into 2007.


Some Islamic news reaction

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported the news citing Warsaw's 'die-hard' support for the Iraq war having led to a 'major fall-out' with Germany and France. What they failed to mention though was that Kaczyinski and his Law and Justice party were not in power at the time of the invasion - rather it was the post-communist Social Democrats under Aleksander Kwasnieski who granted the Polish gvt.'s unfettered support for what IRNA report as the 'illegal American invasion'. Kwasnieski recently stated that his gvt. supported the war under what he now recognises as the false pretence that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.


Background on Poland's Involvement with the 'War On Terror'

As the sectarian bodycount rises and the quagmire connected to the occupation escalates, Poland would do well to learn from it's blind support for the U.S. Administration's warmongering and also withdraw it's troops from Afghanistan. 100 Polish troops are currently stationed in Bagram, with a further deployment of 1,000 troops due to take part in NATO operations from next year.

Out of the initial contingent of 2,400 troops to Iraq, 18 have died during their deployment.


Polish correspondent Waldeamr Milewicz and Polish-Algerian Mounir Abdallach Boumarane have been amongst many journalists killed during this conflict. More background news on Polish participation in the Iraq War can be read in my article An Irishman in Warsaw with an Inflatable Hammer

Any form of dissent against the war has been deemed a threat by the Polish authorities, as was witnessed in Wroclaw during a Sept. 2005 demo.


March 2003 witnessed the biggest ever anti-war demo in Poland!


Prodi announces final Italian withdrawal

And last but not least, the now ruling Italian centre-left coalition, which criticised former premier Berlusconi's support for the occupation by deploying 3,200 'peace-keeping' troops to post-war Iraq while they were in opposition, have announced that their remaining soldiers should be back home in Italy from Nasiriyah by Dec. 2nd '06. Prime Minister Romano Prodi said, 'We only have between 60 and 70 Italian soldiers left in Nasiriyah to hand over the barracks to the Iraqi police..........most of Italy's soldiers have already left their headquarters in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah and have reached neighbouring Kuwait. '

Iraqi blogs and news

If one wants to keep abreast of news in Iraq I suggest reading
Electronic Iraq, especially Iraqi Diairies, where you can read authentic Iraqi voices struggling to survive and report the truth from the ground

Note: Guardian Link to Steve Bell's cartoon