Top Brit: U.K. To Split With U.S. On Iraq

Gordon Brown, Expected To Be New PM, Says Britain Likely To Scale Down Troops

(AP)  Treasury chief Gordon Brown, expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister by September, suggested Sunday that he will pursue an Iraq policy that is more independent of Washington than the current government.

Brown acknowledged that mistakes were made in the aftermath of the invasion and promised to be “very frank” with President Bush. He also said that Britain is likely to scale down its commitment of troops to Iraq over the next year — even as the White House is considering dispatching thousands more, at least temporarily.

Brown's comments, aired on the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Sunday AM program, seemed intended to distinguish himself from Blair, who has been criticized in Britain for his strong support for Bush and the war, both unpopular here.

“I look forward, if I am in a new position, to working with the president of the United States, George Bush,” Brown said. “Obviously, people who know me know that I will speak my mind. I will be very frank. The British national interest is what I and my colleagues are about.”

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department declined to comment on Brown's interview.

Blair has said he will step down as prime minister and leader of the governing Labour party before September. Brown, who is credited with helping Blair reinvigorate the Labour party, is unlikely to face any credible challenge when the party elects a new leader, who will automatically become Britain's new prime minister.

Brown, in the BBC interview, also said that Saddam Hussein's execution — in which Saddam, a Sunni Arab, was taunted with the name of a radical Shiite cleric — had done nothing to help stem Iraq's sectarian violence.

“Now that we know the full picture of what happened, we can sum this up as a deplorable set of events,” Brown told the BBC. “It is something, of course, which the Iraqi government has now expressed its anxiety and shame at.”

Blair, who previously declined to comment on the hanging, said through his press office Sunday that the manner of Saddam's execution was “completely wrong.”

Brown also told the BBC that he believed the ideological battle for the hearts and minds of young Muslims was as crucial as the battle against communism was for previous generations.

Brown, in charge of Britain's Treasury since 1997, said he had worked with officials across the American political divide and remained close to ex-Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

In the interview, recorded on Saturday, Brown also said he believed there should be some form of inquiry into the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

“There are lessons to be learnt, particularly from what happened immediately after Saddam Hussein fell,” he told the BBC.

“One is that in Iraq itself there is absolutely no doubt — and I think people will agree on this in time — that the passage of authority to the local population should have begun a lot earlier, so they had to take more responsibility for what was happening in their own country.”

He said the experience of insurgency in Iraq and Islamic extremist terrorism had proven that “we will not win against extreme terrorist activities and propaganda activities unless we have this battle for hearts and minds as well.”

The Treasury chief said he believed Britain was unlikely to join any future U.S. plan to temporarily increase troop numbers in Iraq, aimed at stemming the current bloodshed.

Britain would “continue to move troops from combat to training, to complete the redevelopment work” and was likely to scale down their presence over the next few months.

Britain has around 7,000 soldiers stationed in southern Iraq, mainly based around the city of Basra.

“I believe it is true to say that by the end of the year, there may be thousands less in Iraq than there are now,” Brown said.

Parliament would also have a stronger role under his leadership, Brown said, and be more able to hold the government to account.

[drinuk]

I posted the Brown statement yesterday ahead of CBS, also stating that if the guy did not agree with the Bush/Blair lies, he should have walked then. Brown is now simply telling the British Public what HE thinks they want to hear, he is no better than the other liars and cheats. This is the man who holds the purse strings in Britian and who let our lads go into Iraq without half their equipment, like working radios, flack jackets, armour, ammunition and now is starving their homes and quarters of funding allowing them to fall into ruin. The lads even had to pay for their own BOOTS. He is a tight fisted, self centred Scot who is gaining control through the "Back Door". Rest assured America, the English don't want him. Beware however, he was a Red under the Bed and still is.

[heetseeker]

"Top Brit: U.K. To Split With U.S. On Iraq"

I hope that everyone realises that this is all populist nonsense. The Iraq war is even more unpopular in Britain than it is here. At the time of the invasion, only one minister resigned from the British cabinet. If Mr Brown had the courage of his convictions it would have been two.

Political opportunism is alive and well in Britain I see.

[agnim]

1,200 Peace Activists Make Giant "Impeach" Sign on Beach
And in San Francisco, about 1,200 peace activists gathered on the beach Saturday to spell out the word Impeach in giant letters visible from the sky. The protest occurred in the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Advocates of impeaching President Bush have criticized Pelosi for saying that impeachment is off the table.

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-


And sad as well, eh? He still looked like a moron.

[bildooreilly]

no usmc, at one part of his speech he tells whoever was talking into his earpiece (karl rove)to SHUTUP... he yells at the guy talking to him, it used to be on places like youtube... amazing..

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-

Bubba probably couldn't figure out the on/off switch.

[bildooreilly]

Yeah that was pitiful, almost surreal.. Then Bush even had the black box and the earpiece and even that didn't help... and the media and all the phony politicians totally ignored it...

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-

Hell, Bubba couldn't even debate Kerry which is no challenge at all for someone with half a gourd.

[bildooreilly]

Yeah USMC, and the media will talk them up like they are too and almost totally shut out the other parties. They won't let the libertarians or the green party in the debates either because they know they can't debate them....

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-

I agree that it's no escuse, just the reality. And half of these Dems who hadn't the gonads to be honorable men and call Bubba on his BS now consider themselves to be presidential material. Sickening, just sickening.

[bildooreilly]

Even so USMC, I don't think it's an excuse, and screw them anyways... lifetime politicians... that's another thing, these people are born and bred politicians kids of the ultra rich... there's some guy that wrote a book back around 1950 and he did a study on a group of people that had never really been studied before, the ultra rich, and he discovered that about 200 families have been controlling this country since before its creation.... you can bet your *** they're still running things today..

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-

But if they had they wouldn't be there now. After all, when it comes to politicians it's all about political survival. That's why you had all the Repub candidates treating Bubba like a pariah last fall.

[bildooreilly]

I agree USMC, they should have stood up for what was right with a little backbone and principal even if it would have looked bad at the time, they'd only look correct now... now they just look wrong and like they should resign with W. I've been voting libertarian, some say it's a wasted vote but then I think they're wasting their vote by voting for the dems and repubs.

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-

You need to keep in mind that Bubba had 72% of the country buying his BS in February, 2003. The gestapoesque tactic of labeling all who oppose war as unpatriotic was employed and he and Rove had enough public support to force them Dems to go along or appear to be traitors.

They were traitors in my book by jumping in the boat with Bubba instead of standing up and calling him on his BS.

I have no use for either party, that's why I'm an independent.

[bildooreilly]

i was saying c r a p there, can't even say *** on CBS... i wasn't cussing too bad.. lol

[bildooreilly]

It was pretty easy to tell that they were lying through the whole buildup thing, they're phony as hell... and lie constantly... it was all *** and everyone with half a brain knew it... democrats that voted for this war have no excuse either, if they're that stupid to believe that *** they need to resign too, they have no business holding office either....

I mean come on, they were saying *** like Saddam could attack american cities within 45 minutes with imaginary WMD's and imaginary remote controlled airplanes... what a bunch of ***, it was all lies and I knew it, they must think everyones really stupid... sad thing is they might be right..

Fact is if you watch em closer, and listen to what they say they're actually talking about themselves most of the time, the only people that posess that capability to do what they were talking about is them...

I like that one old speech bush gives where he says "This evil has been around for a long long time" or that other one "Evil Has Found A Willing Servant" these guys are talking about themselves, they're usually not lying... people just don't get it...

[exusmcsgt]

bildooreilly-

Bubba and the NeoCons were sure they could find some splinter on which to base their claims. But the liar was Bubba, not Saddam.

They knew they didn't have good intelligence, you're right. But they were betting on the come and got caught with their pants down around their ankles in front of the entire world.

[bildooreilly]

Exusmc, they knew Saddam didn't have WMD's, most of Colin Powells UN speech was based off of a British Intelligence Dossier that was plagarized word for word off some term paper written before the first gulf war by some college kid in California I believe it was. You can look this up, it's been in the news but they don't make a very big deal out of it. Also if you search CBS NEWS you should be able to find a story called "The Man Who Knew" and it's an interview with Colin Powells right hand man who told Powell it was all lies right before he went out and gave his famous UN speech.

[exusmcsgt]

nyckate-

All the price of being Bubba's frontman in a boondoggle. Bad strategy makes everyone's job more difficult, if not impossible. But Bubba thinks we can throw enough warriors and treasure at the problem to save his legacy.

[nyckate]

to exusmcsgt - Maliki now realizes that he is answerable to the muslim clerics and that he has to hadn off some of the pwoer to their militias who are battling the sunnis and the US soldiers - yet at the same time they are heavily dependant on US to fund their regime - so there is no real leadership in Iraq - teh elected officials preside over a sectarin government - which has more loyalty to iran and Syria.

Iraq is a complex place - unfortunately Bush relies heavily on usless bushisms adn soundbites - all blather and no substance - which he why he and his didn't see the complexities of the iraq situation.