What a complete ass. Margaret Beckett pulled a classic Blair/Bush spin this past week but as one expects from that crowd, facts do not match reality. The British troops are finding themselves caught up in the middle of the violence and are being pushed out by local militias. The relative calm that used to be common in the British section has fallen victim to the regular cycles of violence from the American region.
Lieutenant General Nick Houghton told the Commons defence committee: "There is a worrying amount of violence and murder carried out between rival Shia factions. There is no doubt that it has got worse of late, due to the protracted period of talks to form the government."
Since a spate of bomb attacks against them last autumn, British forces have largely kept out of the centre of Basra. Much of the police force in the south has been taken over by Shia militias who often clash with one another as well as intimidating ordinary people and attacking what is left of the Sunni community in the south.
