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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Basra Jailbreak

Basra Jailbreak

by John Cole|  September 20, 20054:05 pm| 18 Comments

This post is in: Military, War on Terror aka GSAVE®

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Here is everything you wanted to know about the British jailbreak in Basra.

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Reader Interactions

18Comments

  1. 1.

    Blue Neponset

    September 20, 2005 at 4:25 pm

    Streiff did a great job on that article. It is a good read.

  2. 2.

    Lines

    September 20, 2005 at 4:27 pm

    I’d say that Juan Cole has a much better rundown of the events, without all the chest thumping and mouth breathing that the red-staters bring with them:

    Juan Cole

  3. 3.

    srv

    September 20, 2005 at 4:28 pm

    Well, except for what the Brits were doing in the first place.

    And that the Brits success in the past doesn’t impress RedState, because we really are smarter than them in the first place.

    Obviously, arresting al-Sadrs aides has been demonstrated not to go over very well in the past. But the Brits are much more likely to deal with the Iranian connections than we are. Best of luck to them.

  4. 4.

    Lines

    September 20, 2005 at 5:47 pm

    Is this more evidence of a corner turning or of freedom being on the march?

  5. 5.

    Steve S

    September 20, 2005 at 6:05 pm

    We see the light at the end of the tunnel!

    Only problem is it’s the train bearing down on us.

  6. 6.

    Tim F

    September 20, 2005 at 6:15 pm

    The RedState diary makes it sound like events are about to land on the British like a binging opera star. If Juan Cole’s assesment is worse than that I don’t even want to read it.

  7. 7.

    Darrell

    September 20, 2005 at 6:53 pm

    Privately, British commanders were seething over the Marines’ monthlong siege of Fallujah—the doctrine of “kill, kill and kill again,” as a former British officer put it to NEWSWEEK.

    That was a good read John. I wasn’t tuned in previously to the level of British arrogance though.. that was a bit of an eye opener. Let’s hope the British can handle Sadr themselves without too much intervention from those trigger happy un-nuanced Americans

  8. 8.

    stickler

    September 20, 2005 at 7:15 pm

    As always, the careful reader should be very wary of anything that appears on RedState.

    Streiff’s jingoism nearly obscures the really crappy situation in Basra. We’re on the verge of civil war in Iraq, our troop strength is too low to match total chaos, and Streiff spends half that post airing his schadenfreude about those pompous Brits getting a comeuppance?

    Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. If we lose control of the Shia south (perhaps unlikely — something I learned from Juan Cole, not Streiff), how do we resupply Baghdad? How do we get our troops out?

    And what, seriously, does Streiff suggest we do about the obvious Iranian influence in the south? Invade Iran? Great strategery that would be.

  9. 9.

    Darrell

    September 20, 2005 at 7:36 pm

    Streiff’s jingoism nearly obscures the really crappy situation in Basra. We’re on the verge of civil war in Iraq, our troop strength is too low to match total chaos..

    We need hizzoner Mayor Nagin to go straighten things out down there in Basra

  10. 10.

    Tim F

    September 20, 2005 at 8:03 pm

    Insightful as always, sir Darrell.

  11. 11.

    Com Con

    September 20, 2005 at 8:44 pm

    That was a good read John. I wasn’t tuned in previously to the level of British arrogance though

    Sometimes I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off without their “assistance”. It seems like they just screw up every city they go into.

  12. 12.

    Bob

    September 20, 2005 at 9:05 pm

    What about that story of fighters taking over neighborhoods in Baghdad in broad daylight? What about the billion bucks that were supposed to go to arming the Iraqis apparently swindled right out of the country?

    We had liars and crooks in the White House that got us into the war, were aided by Iraqi liars and crooks, and now we have a country falling apart.

    Forget Pottery Barn, let’s break for the door and hope no one tries to stop us on the way out.

  13. 13.

    Aaron

    September 21, 2005 at 12:03 am

    It’s nice to see that non-American troops act like cowboys when they need to.

  14. 14.

    p.lukasiak

    September 21, 2005 at 8:10 am

    its difficult to not see this as a potential watershed event in Iraq (and I’m frankly appalled at the relative dearth of coverage by the US corporate media.)

    The critical point here is that British troops attacked an Iraqi police station in a manner that is going to have broad repercussions. One wonders what kind of information these British soldiers (actually spies with military cover) that the Brits were so afraid would be disclosed that they pulled this stupid stunt.

    A couple of points of note — the Iraqis clearly have excellent intelligence on what the British are planning on doing. The two spies were not in the jail, but had been removed and handed over to “militia elements” —a fact the Brits found out only after they’d attacked the jail.

    RedState doesn’t even bother to mention that the British attack on the jail lead to the reported escape of 150 people being held there. Whether these people were “common criminals” or “terrorists”, their release does not bode well for maintaining the security of Basra.

    RedState goes to great lengths to try and blame Sadr and the Mahdi Army—then to attempt to connect them to Iran. But the claims of Sadr responsibility are belied by the fact that “Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said.” And Redstate offers nothing more than the usual right-wing paranoia to connect this incident to Iran.

    In other words, not only is the RedState piece not “everything you wanted to know“, it presents a wholly speculative interpretation of the events for which there is little or no factual basis. (Both SCIRI and DAWA are much more closely connected to Iran than is Sadr and his Mahdi army…..)

  15. 15.

    Vlad

    September 21, 2005 at 9:15 am

    Myself, I’m still curious/concerned about these reports of the British soldiers/spies having a car full of explosives.

  16. 16.

    Darrell

    September 21, 2005 at 9:31 am

    p.lukisiak: “RedState goes to great lengths to try and blame Sadr and the Mahdi Army—-then to attempt to connect them to Iran…And Redstate offers nothing more than the usual right-wing paranoia to connect this incident to Iran”

    Red State: Sadr’s ties to Iran are “hugely overblown”. It is Juan Cole (left wing paranoia?) who is claiming Sadr is in the pocket of Iran

    p.lukisiak: “But the claims of Sadr responsibility are belied by the fact that “Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said.”

    Verbatim quote from Red State article: “Witnesses said they saw Basra police exchanging fire with British forces. Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said.”

    p.lukisiak: “I’m frankly appalled at the relative dearth of coverage by the US corporate media.)”

    Red State: linked to headline articles in the Washington Post and UK Guardian. From the “Latest Headlines” section of Fox news website, “Britain: Iraqi Police Placed Commandos in Danger”. Lead Headline on CNN World: “Iraq’s national security adviser has raised sharp questions about the way British forces handled the rescue of two of its undercover troops in the southeastern city of Basra”.. No doubt similar “dearths of coverage” at other major news ‘corporate media’ sites.

    Thanks for the insightful, perceptive commentary lukisiak. Come again soon

  17. 17.

    Darrell

    September 21, 2005 at 9:36 am

    Vlad Says:

    Myself, I’m still curious/concerned about these reports of the British soldiers/spies having a car full of explosives

    Why would you be concerned that British troops had explosives? That piece of information, in and of itself, even if true doesn’t mean a thing… that is, it doesn’t mean a thing unless you’re a drooling paranoid lunatic

  18. 18.

    Vlad

    September 21, 2005 at 1:00 pm

    “Why would you be concerned that British troops had explosives?”

    There are Chinese and Turkish wire reports saying that the British soldiers/spies in question were driving a civilian car full of explosives, and that the conflict escalated after they were caught planting a bomb.

    We’re talking about sketchy foreign-language press reports that’ve been translated at least once, but even so, it’s clearly something that should be looked into to make sure nothing hinky’s going on.

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