Now, more than ever, Britain must stay in Iraq

25 August 2007

William Shawcross denounces those who say we must stand firm in Afghanistan but flee the country we liberated from Saddam Hussein. The US ‘surge’ is beginning to work, and Gordon Brown must grasp that the war against Islamism is indivisible

Petraeus is reporting to Congress in the middle of September. As he himself says, he is not going to be ‘putting lipstick on a pig’. And while he has every right to list all the military successes, he will also have to enumerate carefully the constant political failures of the Iraqi government.

The counterpoint of the surge was that it was to have given space for the Shia and the Sunni in the government to make historic compromises on such vital issues as the sharing of oil revenues. Instead, the gulf between Sunni, Shia and Kurd politicians is as wide as ever. While American and British soldiers and Iraqi civilians are dying in such numbers, that is, frankly, unforgivable. It has led many in the US Congress to conclude that the US has no strategic partner in Baghdad and for that reason alone there is no point in continuing to sacrifice young soldiers. That is the real problem of Iraq today — not the courage and ability of US soldiers to defeat the terrorists. In a Spectator article earlier this month the new foreign secretary, David Miliband, spoke of what the West has achieved in Afghanistan and insisted that: ‘Finally, we need to send a clear signal to allies and enemies that our commitment will be sustained, and will be matched by partners across the world. . . . A stable, successful Afghanistan, at peace with itself and with its neighbours, is a necessary condition for stability across
South West Asia.’

Quite right, but absurdly the British government does not seem to understand that the same is true of Iraq — indeed, the dangers are even greater. When I spoke to General Keane this week he pointed out that unlike the British, ‘American leaders have now realised that more troops are needed to meet the increasing challenges of extremism and radical Islam. I hope the British face up to this harsh national reality as well. Our collective security is at stake.’ What this means is that we need considerably more resources for the British armed forces: this will be a long war.

The sirens who call for us to abandon Iraq would do well to turn an eye to history. In the careless partition of India in 1947 around a million people died. When America was defeated in Vietnam in 1975 the bloodbath theory proved true — horror engulfed all of Indochina.

In Iraq the bestial zealotry of the Muslim terrorists warns us of even greater horrors. Hundreds of thousands of people could die or be uprooted in the full-scale civil war that followed Western capitulation. Huge numbers who hoped that we really would help them create a decent Iraq are terrified that we will capitulate. And with reason. As
Petraeus said recently of the aftermath of withdrawal, ‘If you didn’t like Darfur, you’re going to hate Baghdad.’