Speculation on the British in Basra

Thomas Ricks pulls together some comments on the British actions in Basra.

Some in the U.S. government worry that the British military, which recently withdrew from its last outpost in the south's biggest city, Basra, has made arrangements not to be attacked in exchange for not interfering in the factional fighting for control of the city. ....

Peter Harling, the Damascus, Syria-based representative of the nongovernmental International Crisis Group.... "I do believe this was a negotiated withdrawal." One indication of that, he said, was that the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has stopped attacking British forces in their remaining airport enclave. "They've achieved what they wanted," Harling said of Sadr's followers, "and now see the British forces as essentially defeated. They have a point."....

The British have shown a real "haste to get out of Dodge, and boy, are they in a hurry," said the U.S. official. The British military, this official added, "would like to get out tomorrow," while the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has somewhat different ideas.

.