The toothless lion

After more than five years in support of the Coalition in Iraq, the British Army is finally folding its hand. The Brits gave up on their remaining responsibilities in Basra many months ago, retreating to a base outside the city, and have continued a drawdown that has cut their forces to approximately 4,000 – with Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicating that the rest will probably leave early in the new year.

In retiring from Basra, the British Army essentially handed over the city to local Shi’ite militias and criminal gangs. When the Iraqi government decided early this year to take back the city with a joint Iraqi-American effort, the Brits remained at their airport base, where their role was largely that of spectators.

Beyond merely local failure in Iraq, the retreat from Basra and the gradual drawdown of British forces is important for what it says about the nation most Americans still regard as our most important ally: Whatever its glorious history – whether on land, on the sea, or in the air – British military capacity today is such a shadow of its former self as to be scarcely a factor on the international scene.

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