Tel-Chai Nation

Let's face it, Tony Blair is just simply weak in the knees:

LONDON (AP) - British troops have achieved many tangible successes in Iraq - securing oil platforms, rounding up rogue police units and driving smugglers carrying weapons and contraband from waterways and border crossings.

Now some of these tasks will be ceded to Iraqi troops for good.

Under proposals laid out by Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday, Britain will withdraw about 1,600 troops from Iraq over the coming months and hopes to make other cuts to its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer.

[...]

Some analysts fear a militia resurgence once British troops withdraw and warn Iran may attempt to step up its influence in the region.

Blair's official spokesman, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy, acknowledged British officials "still believed Iranian supplied ordinance is coming across the border."

But Blair said the decision to withdraw was made because the south had "no Sunni insurgency, no al-Qaida base, little Sunni on Shia violence."

Uh, Tony, how do you know that these problems couldn't return once you've left? Risks can't be taken, you know, and by abandoning your posts in Iraq, you're running the risk of enabling the terrorists to gain a foothold anew.

The sad truth, I think, is that Blair is caving in to the opposition he faces back in the Blighty, which may have been against raiding Iraq and stopping Saddam from the very beginning.

Labels: Iraq, war on terror