Flashback: After the Surge: Is the British Withdrawal from Southern Iraq a Model for U.S. Forces?

"This is not a litmus test for the Americans,” British Army Major Mike Shearer, a military spokesman, said to the assembled members of the press.

It was Saturday, December 15, in a sandbagged, air-conditioned tent at the sprawling British military base adjacent to the Basra international airport. Around 20 TV, print and radio journalists –- Brits, mostly -– had flown in the day before on a Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules airlifter in order to cover the official handover of the oil-rich southern province of Basra to Iraqi authorities after four years of British occupation.

A British withdrawal was possible because the 30,000-strong local Iraqi security forces were finally trained and equipped to handle day-to-day security, according to British Major General Graham Binns, senior U.K. commander in Basra."
War is Boring