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Reluctant Hero

Brown makes first visit to Iraq

Chancellor Gordon Brown has made his first visit to Iraq and has promised an extra £100m ($188m) over three years to help rebuild the country's economy.
After meeting UK troops near Basra, he praised their "tremendous morale" and the "work they have been doing in often very difficult circumstances".

He said he hoped to see troop reductions "in the next few months".

Mr Brown also met senior military officers and discussed Iraq's economy with senior Iraqi ministers.

Earlier, Tony Blair publicly agreed that violence in Iraq since the US-led 2003 invasion had been a "disaster".

'Security and prosperity'

Mr Brown, whose visit had been kept secret, met Iraqi deputy prime minister Barham Saleh and other senior ministers during his day-long trip.

He said: "We are committed to supporting the Iraqis in building a democratic nation which brings security and prosperity to its people and plays a full part in the region and the world economy."

He urged the Iraqi authorities to press ahead with reconstruction work, which he said would offer ordinary people the prospect of jobs and prosperity and counter the appeal of extremist violence.

"We have got to help the Iraqi economy get back on its feet so that we can see Iraq running its own affairs and we can see a reduction in our troops in the next few months," he said.

"It is very important that there are infrastructure projects that deliver jobs.

"There are far too many people here who are unemployed and without the means of building a future.

"We are prepared to do what we can, but we want to work with the Iraqi government so that the economy is reconstructed in such a way that people can look forward to prosperity and therefore the moderates are given strength against extremists who are preaching violence."

The chancellor - the favourite to succeed Mr Blair as prime minister - is seen as keen to increase his profile outside his Treasury brief.

Mr Brown was accompanied on his trip by the Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup and also held talks with senior commanders of UK forces in Iraq, as well as regular troops.

Mr Brown told members of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment: "I know you are called the Tigers, and you are proud and courageous tigers and everyone in Britain is very proud of you.

"I hope you will have a restful Christmas."

Police 'problem'

The UK has 7,200 troops in the south of Iraq, mostly stationed in and around Basra, but the city remains dangerous with factions battling for control.

Assistant Chief Constable Dick Barton - advising the Iraqi police force - said large numbers of officers would have to be replaced to reduce militia influence.

Blair accepts Iraq 'disaster'

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the "culture difference" was making reform difficult.

On Friday, Mr Blair was questioned by Sir David Frost in an interview on the al-Jazeera English-language Arabic TV channel about the situation in Iraq.

When asked whether the violence had "so far been pretty much of a disaster", the prime minister replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq?

"It's not difficult because of some accident in planning."

Those involved in the insurgency had a "deliberate strategy" which had to be overcome, Mr Blair added.

The Liberal Democrats said the prime minister had now accepted the enormity of his decision to go to war in Iraq.

But Downing Street insisted his views had been misrepresented.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6160626.stm

Bliar is actually right for once - it is a disaster.

Why are we flying the Chancellor to Iraq - what relevance is it to him at the moment? It's nice of him to £100m to rebuild the economy, but he could have saved all that money if he and his friends hadn't blown the country apart in the first place.

SLG · Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:41 am Post subject:

Brown might think that he's being Prime Ministerial by visiting Iraq etc, but it's not a policy he should want to be linked with. He's as much to blame as Blair is.

Morph · Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:22 pm Post subject:

I agree that Iraq should be helped with funds. However we must make sure that some of this money is used to equip the soldiers we have over there properly first.

Also we dont want this to become a monetary blackhole, where instead of addressing the obvious problems in the country we just throw money at it.
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"An oppressive government is to be more feared than a tiger"

Babygael · Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 9:38 pm Post subject:

Help the folks who wuid kill us??? "Cause if you think they are GRATEFULL you 'd better think again!! Better spend the funds at hame making oor peeps lives better and staying oot of other peoples BUSINESS!!

If we ,like the Americans, are worried aboot losing controle over oil, we should do something about it! Like use our resources and BRAINS to solve these problems. After all what determins a leader? The one who has the biggest muscles? Or the wan wae the biggest smarts??
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Ath-bheothachad

Here is where I come to water my roots.

Aventinian · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:36 am Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject: