Brits storm Basra prison

[Dinner]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I'm not arguing the legality of it, but it certainly doesn't speak to the stability of the situation...

You are right there. Iraq is not very stable and sectarian violence keeps going up every month. There were something like 1100 murders in Baghdad alone last month (compared to about 1 per day before the war) and most of that is different ethnic and religous groups fighting each other. Basically the stage is set for a civil war and the only thing stopping it is the presence of foreign soldiers.

The US and the UK will be cutting their forces in half by next summer so that's when things will start to unwind. The Iraqi government doesn't have any forces of its own worth talking about. There is less then one division that is rated combat ready and the Iraqi National Guard was disbanded two months ago due to corruption and insurgent infiltration. The ING's predicesor the Iraqi Civil Defense Corp (ICDC) was disbanded in 2004 for, you guessed it, corruption and insurgent infiltration. The only other Iraqi Security Forces are the local police, however, they are corrupt as hell and as this incident shows many (if not most) of them have outside loyalties they place above their job as a policeman.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Colon
So in other words, the bodies that are supposed to be taking over the country cannot be trusted?

Bingo.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Colon
I'm deaf and blind to comparisons with WW2.

Sorry for the Godwin.

[Dinner]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4262336.stm

BBC updated their article and is now saying the policemen were working with the militia (I'm assuming they're talking about the Mahdi though there are several different armed militias).

[TheStinger]

Apparently the "police" handed them over to the militia so they broke into the prison to demand their wherabouts so they could be rescued.

Seems fair enough

[Ted Striker]

But the British are "The World's Greatest Peacekeepers TM" with their experience in Northern Ireland!!! What's with this gloves off and guns blazing business???

[TheStinger]

we are the best peacekeepers becasue we know when to keep the peace and when to kick arse

[Ted Striker]

[Saras]

Originally posted by TheStinger
we are the best peacekeepers becasue we know when to keep the peace and when to kick arse

Brit attitude

[Winston]

Freeing two hostages while at the same time getting a strong message across to people getting funny ideas isn't too bad.

[Dr Strangelove]

DO you think that the people with the funny ideas really learned anything from this? AFAICS the whole of Iraq sits in "LD" class.

[Winston]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
DO you think that the people with the funny ideas really learned anything from this?

Who's to say. I suppose an indicator would be whether they'll attempt taking coalition troops hostage again in the future. Remains to be seen.

[molly bloom]

I suspect this stemmed from previous British experience with Iraqi militias and their sympathizers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3023552.stm

Sergeant Tim, as he was known by the local policeman whom he and his five colleagues were training, urged one of the young Iraqi recruits, Abbas Bairphy, to find him a radio.
An angry and jeering mob, perhaps some 300-strong, had gathered outside the police station in the southern Iraqi town of Majar al-Kabir, and Sergeant Tim, whose own radio was in a burning vehicle outside, was desperate to contact his superiors for assistance.

But there was no radio, a distraught Mr Bairphy told him, shortly before he fled. And no help came. Within two hours, Sergeant Tim and the five other members of the Royal Military Police would be dead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3022670.stm

[Havak]

Personally I was impressed by the restraint shown by the crews of the Warriors that were attacked by the angry mob. That could have been a blood bath. In their shoes I might have driven my vehicle through the mob at the very least.

[Theben]

From the article:

In a statement, Brig Lorimer said that under Iraqi law the soldiers should have been handed over to coalition authorities, but this failed to happen despite repeated requests.

"I had good reason to believe that the lives of the soldiers were at risk and troops were sent to the area of Basra near the police station to help ensure their safety by providing a cordon," Brig Lorimer said.
[sic]

"Later in the day, however, I became more concerned about the safety of the two soldiers after we received information that they had been handed over to militia elements."

After troops broke into the police station to confirm the men were not there, they staged a rescue from a house in Basra, said the commanding officer of 12 Mechanised Brigade in Basra.

Brig Lorimer added: "It is of deep concern that British soldiers held by the police should then end up being held by the militia. This is unacceptable."