Basra Not a Retreat or Defeat
Friday, December 21, 2007
Source: MoD
Following the transition of Basra Province to Provincial Iraqi Control at the weekend Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup has challenged claims that the Iraq mission has been a failure.
In an interview with BFBS Television broadcast last night, Wednesday 19 December 2007, Sir Jock discussed a number of issues including the handover of Basra, the UK's military commitment to Afghanistan as well as his hope that a reduction in troop levels on deployed operations will ease the demands on the armed forces.
Referring to the handover of Basra Province on Sunday 16 December 2007 in Basra Sir Jock said: "Would we have liked to have seen better economic development and improved infrastructure faster? Of course we would. But all of these things have to be moved forward together."
Sir Jock was frank in his response to suggestions in the media this week that, with Sunday's handover, British forces had left the Iraqi people in control of a province in chaos and disorder. He also believes that only the people of Iraq have the power to resolve their country's troubles:
"I come back to the point that only the Iraqis can deliver this," he said. "We can't move into somebody else's country, take it over, rebuild it and hand it back and say, 'there you are now get on with it', that's never a realistic prospect. And if there was a failing, then perhaps it was not explaining that clearly enough at the outset."
Regarding the issues of infrastructure and economic development, the training of the police force and militia infiltration he added:
"The challenge of developing a police system in Iraq was always going to be massive. It's absolutely right to say that over the past two or three years infiltration of police by the militia has been a substantial problem; a problem which we have done ourselves a great deal about.
"You don't need to think back very far to recall the rather controversial raid on the Jameat, which we staged as part of that process. The training that's gone into the various police stations throughout Basra, an enormous amount of UK effort. But, in the final analysis, it comes down to the same point - that only the Iraqis can take these issues forward to a satisfactory and lasting conclusion."
Sir Jock was also asked to respond to claims that the UK mission in Iraq is now one of 'retreat and defeat':
"It's about delivering success. To those who regard Basra as a defeat, I don't agree with them - I think they are completely and utterly wrong - I'd ask them how they would characterise victory, and I think you will find you'd get some fairly preposterous answers to be honest, but answers that were clearly never deliverable.
"So it's a question of defining your terms in the first place, and as I've said, our definition of military success in Basra was to get the place and the people to the stage where the Iraqis could take over the running of that part of their country, and that's what they've done."
Turning to Afghanistan, Sir Jock was asked to explain how the UK military can reconcile the necessity for a long-term committment in Afghanistan with the need of the Armed Forces to regenerate, consolidate and train following such an intense period of operations with committments in Iraq and Afghanistan:
"We can only solve that problem through reducing the overall operational tempo," he explained. "Afghanistan is a long-term committment, but it's a long-term committment for the international community on a broad front of economic, social, infrastructure and governance development.
"The military contribution is certainly not going to be short-term, but one would expect the Afghan security forces, particularly the Afghan National Army which has been performing very well recently, to take on an increasing share of the military burden.
"In Iraq, of course, we are reducing the number of people deployed there; we already have reduced over the course of this year and we expect to be able to reduce further next year. We have withdrawn our combat forces from Bosnia, so overall we have started to reduce the number of our military deployed on operations and we expect that trend to continue, and that is the key to restoring the training base here within the UK and more widely."
