US puts on brave face and vows to complete mission 'with honour'

Putting on a brave a face, the Bush administration hailed Britain's withdrawal of troops from Iraq as proof of success, even as it braced for pressure from war opponents to follow suit and announce steps to scale back US forces.

The most ringing statement of faith came from Vice-President Dick Cheney, the most optimistic of Mr Bush's officials, however bad the news from the ground. Far from undermining the coalition, Mr Cheney asserted, Mr Blair's announcement was proof that "in parts of Iraq... things are going well". As for US troops, they would complete their mission "with honour" - an implicit rejection by the Vice-President of any timetable for a pullout.

Speaking in Berlin, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, also struck a defiant note, dismissing suggestions that the British move leaves the US even more isolated in Iraq. Thousands of British troops would remain in southern Iraq even after the pullout, she said. "The coalition remains intact," she said. But there was no concealing that America's most loyal ally in Iraq was scaling back its presence in the country, even as the US was increasing its force with the deployment of 21,500 more troops to Baghdad and al-Anbar province, stronghold of the Sunni insurgency.

Some commentators wondered why the British troops being removed from the Basra region were not being sent north to help the US and the Iraqi government restore order in the capital. But the real fear is that the British drawdown could provide cover for other countries to do the same. There was no official comment on Denmark's decision to pull out its 470 troops, leaving a token helicopter force behind.

The main challenge to Mr Bush will come from the Democrats, who used their new majority in the House of Representatives to force through a resolution opposing the troop "surge".

Britain's move seems bound to encourage new efforts when Congress returns next week to tie the President's hands over troop deployments - either by imposing minimum leave requirements for combat units or some other logistical restriction - and thus force radical changes in overall Iraq policy. "It is long past time for the administration to change course, to begin the hard work of diplomacy with Iraq, and redeploy our forces," Senator Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, said.

Many Middle East experts dispute the White House argument that Britain's troop withdrawal is a sign of success. The withdrawal would merely play into the hands of Iranian-backed Shia militias, who in effect run much of the region, according to Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "The British cuts... reflect the political reality that British forces 'lost' the south more than a year ago," he said.

Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said: "Some of the Pentagon rhetoric about 'success' may be partially true, but it doesn't give you any great confidence about Baghdad."

Any tactical success in solidly Shia Basra strengthened the argument for a partition of Iraq, he noted, or a loose confederal structure of the country. But that in turn would run up against the reality of a capital divided on sectarian lines.

* Insurgents shot down a US military helicopter with nine people on board near Baghdad last night but no one was killed, the military said. It was the eighth downing of a helicopter in Iraq in a month. A military spokeswoman said it appeared the Black Hawk had been brought down by rocket-propelled grenades.

Interesting? Click here to explore further