Basra was called a peaceful and a successful city. What went wrong?


As British forces pull back from Basra in southern Iraq, Shiite militias there have escalated a violent battle against each other for political supremacy and control over oil resources, deepening concerns among some U.S. officials in Baghdad that elements of Iraq's Shiite-dominated national government will turn on one another once U.S. troops begin to draw down.

Three major Shiite political groups are locked in a bloody conflict that has left the city in the hands of militias and criminal gangs, whose control extends to municipal offices and neighborhood streets. The city is plagued by "the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias that increasingly intermingle with political actors," a recent report by the International Crisis Group said.


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I guess that's what happens when you give waring factions a notice that forces will be pulling out. As we leave or the British leave, someone will fill the void.

AQre we the smartest people out there? We seem to notice the probs before they begin and yet we pay these guys how much?

Gee, that is not what Bush wants the people to believe. Someone make up my mind for me, pleses.

A senior US intelligence official in Baghdad has said British forces lost control of Basra by pulling out troops too quickly.

British forces have failed in Basra
British commanders are preparing to hand over Basra Palace to the Iraqi army later this month

The result has been a security vacuum which has allowed the city's religious, tribal and criminal factions battle it out for control of the streets.

"The British have basically been defeated in the south," the intelligence official told the Washington Post.

In a report to be published tomorrow in the influential American newspaper, the official said that a contingent of 500 British troops based at Basra Palace were "surrounded like cowboys and Indians."


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This isn't going to be a good reflection on the "Progress" in Iraq.

A senior US intelligence official in Baghdad has said British forces lost control of Basra by pulling out troops too quickly.

I'm not sure they ever had control in the first place. If the British couldn't take control of the area, how to hell will Iraqi forces be able to?

The only reason Basra appeared to be quiet is that it is a shi'a city, few opponents, but now they are turning on each other. They have no one else to attack. Sounds like a look into the future of the country.

If that's true we are looking at a permanent occupation. There doen't seem to be any way to avoid a bloodbath.

I believe you have hit the nailk where it hurts. No one really wants to say that it will be permenant, but it appears to be heading in that direction.