British PM plays up Afghan gain to divert attention from debacle in S. Iraq

DEBKAfile - DEBKAfile Reports: British PM plays up Afghan gain to divert attention from debacle in S. Iraq: "After four days of heavy fighting, Afghan National army and international forces covered by US and British marines entered the outskirts of the strategic town of Musa Qala in northern Helmand, south of Kabul, Monday, Dec. 10. This was the moment that British premier Gordon Brown decided to head for Helmand and Kabul from southern Iraq, after his announcement there that “The war in Iraq is over.” He said that all British troops will be home by the spring of 2008, and the UK will hand Basra province over to Iraqi control in the next two weeks, leaving the last 2,500 British troops in place...
In southern Iraq, 1,430 miles West of Helmand Province, the British army’s situation is less happy.

US strategists and officers remark that Brown's announcement of a drawdown of British forces - because, he said, the Iraq war is over - was a backhanded admission that they had been defeated in their effort to secure southern Iraq against Shiite militias."