War And Skepticism

This morning, Britain is a very worried country. Worried, and a little angry. And, I'm afraid to say, it's Iraq again. It just won't go away.

A couple of weeks ago, American military chiefs asked British military chiefs for a favour. Your army wants to mount a huge ground assault on the rebel stronghold town of Fallujah, where many of the troublemakers are based. But you need some more troops. So you turned to us.

Could the British move around 850 soldiers from the relatively quiet South-East of the country ... to replace an American battalion just south of Baghdad? This will free up more American soldiers to attack Fallujah. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

But wait a moment. Just stop and think. Because over here political antennas suddenly started twitching. How many American troops are there in Iraq? Around 130,000. So why do you suddenly need 850 Brits? What possible difference can they really make?

And why now, this week? Could the reason be more POLITICAL than military? Could the US Administration be looking less at securing the peace in time for the Iraqi election on January 31st ... and more towards securing some more votes in your own election on November 2nd?

Remember in that first TV debate, how Mr. Kerry's attack on the President seemed to strike home ... when he said that Americans had to bear 90 per cent of the casualties and 90 per cent of the costs of the war in Iraq?

Well, here in Britain, there's a widespread feeling that television pictures of our troops moving into dangerous areas around Baghdad, mounting joint patrols with American forces, coming under more sustained fire and ... perhaps, heaven forbid, taking some more casualties.... might not be a bad thing for the President's claim that America is not alone in Iraq.

Believe it or not, such is the distrust of your current Administration right across our political spectrum, the public mood here is one of deep suspicion. Could British soldiers be about to be used, as one newspaper here put it, as pawns in George Bush's re-election bid? Cynical? You bet. The truth? You decide..

By Simon Bates