Basra Cuts Ties With UK Forces

[babydave]

The Press Association
Tuesday February 14, 11:21 AM
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/14022006/344/basra-leaders-cut-ties-uk-army.html

Basra provincial council has suspended relations with the British over the alleged 2004 abuse of Iraqis by British soldiers in southern Iraq, a British military spokesman said.

Capt. James St. John-Price said the Basra provincial authorities severed contacts on Monday.

It came a day after footage emerged showing several Iraqi youths allegedly being beaten by British soldiers in Amarah.

"The (Basra) provincial council has decided to suspend relations with the British," St. John-Price said.
"We are unsure if this includes diplomatic and economic ties also."

It was also unclear if Iraqi police forces, which had been conducting joint-patrols with British forces, would heed the council decision to cut ties, St. John-Price said.

"We are hopeful that the IPS (Iraqi police services) will keep carrying out joint-patrols," he said.

He said he was uncertain if Iraqi police, which are under the control of the national government in Baghdad, had decided to stop co-operating with the British military in Basra, where the bulk of Britain's forces are based.

If they are going to be like this then part of me says bring the guys home and let the iraqis kill each other, if they cant even comprehend that this incident was a long time ago and has probably been dealt with by now.

[Holycrusader]

Take them and slap'em hard... That will teach them...



















(sarcasm)

[babydave]

never fails :)

[Flavius22]

thanks for the link to the story

[Chops]

Flavius

Quit being a **** or take a holiday. Your choice.

Chops

[Enduring Freedom]

Flavius

Quit being a **** or take a holiday. Your choice.

Chops
This might not be any of my business. But just out curiosity; what it's about Flavius reply that offends You?


thanks for the link to the story

[Argyll]

No Big deal,Basrah's corrupt as fek,and they withdraw support regularly,usually after the Brits have gone in and taken names!!

[RomanS]

I feel for the Brittish soldiers!

Our Russian soldiers were accused about things that make any sane man laugh. Accept no video evidence exists of Russian commiting those "mentioned" crimes. But the media will blow this out of proportion.

I dont see what British soldiers did wrong on the video. A base was atacked with rocks, and other objects were thrown at the soldiers.

Kind of like if i go and start throwing rocks at a local police or military station, the uniformed staff will throw flowers and candies back at me.

Come on ! Let the soldiers go already!

[Kitsune]

What British soldiers did wrong on this video should be obvious.
It's only sad that the behaviour of a low numbers of soldiers can threaten to undo the patient work of thousands others. It's completely absurd that a bunch of men can behave like they did, but more, one is even so stupid to make a videotape of the incident (why is there always such an idiot I wonder?) and then, to top all of this, guys from the media have to publish this years old tape at the worst possible moment when tensions about this wretched cartoon affair are running high. All this is not as it should be.
But still, when it comes down to it, the main culprits are the kid beating soldiers. Even those hardliners with the "hey they are soldiers in a warzone, give them a break" attitude have to agree that these wretches have violated the 11th Commandment. People like that have nothing lost in any professional army (in my humble opinion as a entirely non British person).











In case anyone is not familiar with it:
The 11th Commandment is the most important of all Commandments. If you heed it, you can even violate the others. It is: "Thou shall not be found out!"

[Chops]

This might not be any of my business. But just out curiosity; what it's about Flavius reply that offends You?

Flavius posted to a couple of threads saying basically the same thing- trying to be a smart arse about the hotlinking issue.

[veritas]

I'm starting a new conspiracy...those wer actually "light skinned insurgents" dressed up as british forces in efforts to cause a stir.....just a theory...

but that headbutt was awesome..

[Jani.R]

I feel for the Brittish soldiers!

Our Russian soldiers were accused about things that make any sane man laugh. Accept no video evidence exists of Russian commiting those "mentioned" crimes. But the media will blow this out of proportion.

I dont see what British soldiers did wrong on the video. A base was atacked with rocks, and other objects were thrown at the soldiers.

Kind of like if i go and start throwing rocks at a local police or military station, the uniformed staff will throw flowers and candies back at me.

Come on ! Let the soldiers go already!

Maybe in Russia its acceptable to beat the **** out of two kids, but not in the civilized world. :roll:

How can you justify them beating and kicking couple kids to the point where they are almost dead?

[melon]

Maybe in Russia its acceptable to beat the **** out of two kids, but not in the civilized world. :roll:

How can you justify them beating and kicking couple kids to the point where they are almost dead?


So NOW they were almost beaten to death?!?? :-)

This story gets more and more exagerated as the days go by and more and more people wet their pants over a little street justice. Maybe they should have just shot them, less fuss without scuffing up your boots on some kids pebbles.

I sometimes wonder how the women in your life view you, being more overly dramatic and hysterical than any teenage girl.

[welshmann]

Looking on a ofp addons makers forum and 1 of the lads sent a email to the sunday paper who did this story and he got a answer..here it is:

When the News of the world published the story about the Brit soldiers i sent a email concerning their actions and i was amazed to recieve a reply from em. Here it is in full...

Email i sent: I think your decision to show the video and images(2004 Basra, Brit
army
beating teenagers) is highly irresponsable and will lead to more lives
being lost within Iraq. Also this will anger Muslim extremists within
the UK and around the world and could cause more damage to our natonal
security.

What they replied:
Thank you for your email regarding the Army video expose.

At the News of the World, we are always interested in the wide-ranging
opinions of our millions of readers.

Although we respect your views, our position remains that we stand by
the publication of our story.

We did not publish without very careful consideration. However, not
publishing would have been unthinkable. It's why the press exists. A
journalist's job is to make accountable the institutions which act on
behalf of the public - however unpalatable the information is.

We cannot apologise for that.

We remain 100% committed - as we have always been - to our troops
wherever they are serving globally. We believe that's clear to anyone
who regularly reads the News of the World.

Here's a copy of the leading article we ran on Sunday. It explains our
position more fully.

News of the World


Below is a copy of the editorial leader published in last Sunday's News
of the World:

BRITISH troops are the best in the world-renowned for their
professionalism as much as their bravery and they are rightly the envy
of the world.

Facing an almost impossible task in Iraq they deserve nothing less than
our total support.

But today is a black day for the Army.

The video we reproduce is shameful and justifiably it will send
shockwaves round the globe.

Of course we do not publish this disturbing material in haste, but with
regret. Yet publish we must.

That said, those responsible for the events we depict must be
identified
and brought to book.

Our troops simply cannot be allowed to behave in this way-how- ever
bad
the provocation.

Remember the prophetic words of Lt Col Tim Collins on the eve of battle
in Iraq.

Unless their conduct was of the highest, he warned his men, their deeds
would follow them down through history, bringing shame on their
uniforms
and nation.

The winning of hearts and minds has been the central strategy in our
Iraq campaign.

That's why there can be no cover-up for those whose savage behaviour
has
disgraced, and perhaps even endangered, their service colleagues.

Unhappily, this video record of brutality does nothing to help the
battle on the troubled streets of Iraq.

But it must NOT be used to devalue the outstanding work being done by
the men and women of the armed services. Duties carried out almost
entirely with enviable self-control, honour, dignity and valour.

And before extremists seize upon the video for their own twisted
agendas
we say this:

It is our very way of life-with its cherished freedoms of speech and
information-that enables us to reveal such disquieting scenes.

Now a full investigation is under way. We are confident the Ministry
of
Defence will identify and deal with the culprits.

We believe justice must be done swiftly. And be seen to be done.

But let us not allow the reckless actions of a rogue group of soldiers
to become the legacy of our courageous men and women in Iraq.

That would be a grave injustice, however shocking the images may be.
http://www.project-ukf.com/forum/index.php?topic=999.msg53851;topicseen#msg53851

[Mailman]

Dont get too excited, that is nothing more than a form reply.

What gets me is the double standards, afraid to post cartoons yet only too happy to post this rubbish!

Mailman

[MakeWar87]

We spend millions on them and they reject it like crazy my heart has hardend to them.

[Telnyashka]

I feel for the Brittish soldiers!

Our Russian soldiers were accused about things that make any sane man laugh. Accept no video evidence exists of Russian commiting those "mentioned" crimes. But the media will blow this out of proportion.

I dont see what British soldiers did wrong on the video. A base was atacked with rocks, and other objects were thrown at the soldiers.

Kind of like if i go and start throwing rocks at a local police or military station, the uniformed staff will throw flowers and candies back at me.

Come on ! Let the soldiers go already!

don't try to get people to sympathise with Russian forces by comparing this to British accusations etc. It wont go over well...

[GuiltySpark]

Our Russian soldiers were accused about things that make any sane man laugh.

Are we talking about the same army?
I've seen some funky videos of russian army deserters having their arms torn off or throat cut. What happens to some of the rebels they catch. Gruesome. Your trying to compare the russian military with the british??

Anyhow, you don't see what they did as wrong? Stratigic soldier mate. Little instances of street justice like this lead to much bigger problems, like the government breaking relations with the british.

What would you do if you and your buddies were ****ing around, maybe drunk a little, and got a little ignorant with soldiers then those soldiers turned around and beat the **** out of you guys till you were near dead.
Now a few weeks later someone hands you an RPG and asks if you want to fire it at a the same soldiers who beat the **** out of you. Little revenge maybe? I know I'd do it.

It sucks that a few stupid soldiers who make big judgement errors can screw things up on a division or even national level. Well thats the new face of modern warfare.

[Supe]

Flavius posted to a couple of threads saying basically the same thing- trying to be a smart arse about the hotlinking issue.

As a regular reader of the news here, I find it frustrating that people don't post sources in their thread. A smartarse comment to prompt OP's to do the right thing is no bad thing. Posting original source should be highly encouraged as good posting etiquette anyway. Sometimes I like to backtrack to the source and find out if there's more on the story or similiar links. Then there's the issue of credibility.

Back on topic: Basra provincial authority isn't doing this out of any outrage but for political mileage. It still has to be taken seriously though.