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Why Britain should withdraw from Iraq
By Mary Kaldor
11/03/05 " Financial Times" -- -- It is time for Britain to withdraw
from southern Iraq, whatever happens in the rest of Iraq and
whatever the US does. The British presence in southern Iraq could be
regarded as a success story because there has been relatively little
violence and local institutions have been established. But since the
September capture by local authorities of two British soldiers clad
in “Lawrence of Arabia” disguise and the subsequent storming of the
prison where they were held, the tide has turned. British troops
face the real possibility of being embroiled in a dangerous
counter-insurgency war which they cannot win and which could
overturn the real achievements the British can claim up to now.
Success is partly due to local consent – occupying the mainly Shia
areas of southern Iraq was always going to be easier than some other
parts of the country. But it is also due to British methods of
peacekeeping, drawn from colonial experience and Northern Ireland,
as well as Bosnia and Kosovo. The Americans have acted as occupiers
rather than peacekeepers and their troops tend to focus on force
protection and “search and destroy” missions. Indeed, the areas
outside their safe zones are often called “Indian country”, as was
the case in Vietnam. As it is often difficult to distinguish
insurgents from civilians, many innocent people get killed or
detained and this deepens the rift between those – generally the
elite – in protected zones who support the occupation and those who
do not. This growing social polarisation risks being transformed
into sectarian civil war because it is mainly Sunni areas that are
targeted by US troops.
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