West still isn't taking Iraqis into account

Within the next week -- or so we are told -- the British prime minister will be delivering a statement of firm intent about the future of our troops in Iraq. The ground has been prepared, the journalists invited out to see the security progress made in Basra. Interviews have been conducted with the soldiers on the ground and the generals up above. The time has come to declare victory and start withdrawal. Not that Gordon Brown can be expected to use the language of exit, of course. He might like to. Indeed, he wanted to when he took over last year. But the U.S. put a stop to that. The U.K. may feel pretty divorced from U.S. policy in Iraq, and even from the "surge" (the Americans had to come down to Basra themselves when they wanted to extend the surge to the south), but we are still partners in this venture and must obey the... [read full story]