20,000
British Troops May
Stay In Iraq 3 Years
By Tim Ripley and Fraser Nelson
The
Scotsman
2-4-3
- The British Army has been asked to station as many as
20,000 troops in Iraq for at least three-years as part of an occupying
force which will back the new Baghdad government being planned in
Washington.
-
- The Scotsman has learned that the Ministry of Defence
is drawing up plans to patrol Iraq on the assumption that the United
Nations will not be involved.
-
- This suggests that a fifth of the army�s strength will
be in the Persian Gulf. This would leave Britain with a peacekeeping
bill of at least �400 million a year - four times that of Kosovo.
-
- The Ministry of Defence has been asked to plan for a
full contribution to the occupying force of up to 200,000 troops which
will back the regime led by the United States when it starts work on a
military government.
-
- "We�ve been told to work on the assumption that we
will have to keep troops there for at least three years, and possibly
longer," a MoD source has told The Scotsman.
-
- The plans, being kept confidential on both sides of
the Atlantic, would see Baghdad drawn into sectors: one patrolled by the
US; one by Britain; and the rest by other members of the occupying
force.
-
- Canada and Australia have so far promised to commit
troops to an invasion, even without a UN mandate, but plans for their
role in an occupation have not yet been decided.
-
- Britain�s occupation force and the army�s armoured
division, led by Major General Robin Brims, is expected to be given
control of a sector of Baghdad. Its infantry units will allow intensive
patrols in urban areas.
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- The Royal Marines of 3 Commando Brigade, under
Brigadier James Dutton, would work with the US Marine Corps sector in
the south of Iraq, centred on the port city of Basra.
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- Lieutenant General James Conway, of the US Marine
Corps, will be asked to secure Iraq�s major oil fields - many of which
are expected to be set alight by Saddam�s retreating forces.
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- Lt Gen Conway will also be responsible for containing
the predominately pro-Iranian Shiite population.
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- Britain�s proposed role in the occupation force
shocked anti-war Labour MPs. Alice Mahon, the Halifax MP, said: "We�re
being told that it would all be over in eight days - this is three
years. It would be nice if the Prime Minister shared these plans with
us. We are the ones who are supposed to be in a democracy."
-
- Jeremy Corbyn, the Islington North MP, a hardened
opponent of the war, said the occupation plans fit with the numbers of
the troops deployed so far. "I always expected an occupying force, but
20,000 is as much as we ever had in Northern Ireland even at the height
of our troubles," he said.
-
- "I fear they will be there for a lot longer than three
years. This all goes to show what a terrible decision this country is
about to make."
-
- Tony Blair yesterday introduced a new argument for
invading Iraq, claiming a show of strength was necessary if Britain is
to use military threat to avoid conflict in future.
-
- The countdown to war will continue tomorrow when Colin
Powell, the US secretary of state is to make public intelligence which
is expected to show proof of the Iraqi leader�s weapons
programme.
-
- He is understood to have been working to declassify
intelligence reports about mobile biological weapons laboratories to
show that Saddam is openly defying the UN and preparing for possible
attacks on the West.
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- http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=137322003
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