British troops are to leave Iraq in the first half of 2009, Gordon Brown announced today.
Since they were deployed in March 2003, 178 British armed forces personnel or MoD civilians have died in Iraq. Brown has been working on pulling out British troops since he became prime minister nearly 18 months ago.
Today's confirmation comes as a relief to some.
sc_obvious, commenting on arrse.co.uk, says:
Thank fcuk I won't have to do another bone TELIC tour. Feel sorry for the 20Bde lads having to tear down all that infrastructure at the various locs throughout Southern Iraq.
There is a stong belief that any return to Britain will be shortlived as operations in Afghanistan are likely to be increased.
rockpile says:
Leaving Iraq to go to ....Afghanistan. Brown is going to get the most publicity out of 'bringing the troops home' between now and July and then as quietly as possible deploy them to Afghanistan
foodie agrees:
I feel sorry for the Lads on the way back to brize when the pilot comes on to the intercom to say that they are being redirected to KAF and there will be a subsequent delay of 6 months!
