By Tom Hundley and Liz Sly MCT
LONDON – Prime Minister Tony Blair’s announcement Wednesday that Britain would begin bringing its troops home from Iraq is less a reflection of progress there than part of Blair’s choreographed departure from Downing Street, according to politicians and analysts.
“I always assumed he would want to be able to announce some limited withdrawal before he left No. 10,” said former Labor Minister Tony Benn, a longtime critic of the war. “It is nothing to do with the real question. It doesn’t represent any change of policy whatsoever, in my opinion, but tactically it looks good.”
Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats and another critic of the war, said Blair “leaves behind a country on the brink of civil war, reconstruction stalled, corruption endemic and the region as a whole a lot less stable than it was in 2003.”
Blair has said he will step down sometime this summer, but many political analysts speculate that his departure may come as early as May. His approval ratings and his authority have been weakened by deep opposition to the war in Britain, and by what many Britons see as his subservience to President Bush.
In a speech to Parliament on Wednesday, Blair confirmed that 1,600 of Britain’s 7,100 soldiers would be brought home over the next few months. The remainder are expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2008. Britain has lost 132 service members in the conflict, and has been the United States’ leading partner, committing some 40,000 troops to the 2003 invasion.
