The Redcoats are leaving!

Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Wedensday that 1,600 British troops will be pulled out of Iraq over the next few months. The official reason is that security in Basra in southern Iraq-- a relatively peaceful Shiite-dominated area-- can now be taken over by Iraqi troops. "We'll stand down when the Iraqis stand up," so to speak. Likewise, all 460 Danish will be withdrawn in the coming months presumably for the same reason. All this is happening as the US is sending an additional 21,000 troops to the volatile and very violent Baghdad and the Sunni triangle.

The US is putting a happy face in all this-- they (the Brits and Danes) can leave since it's peaceful where they are deployed, and it probably is. But that is not the point. If America's allies in the Iraq war are so committed to the cause, why not send those 1,600 British and 460 Danish troops to Baghdad instead of bringing them home? Obviously, there is a need to reallocate troop strength from southern Iraq to the central Sunni triangle; how come the Allies aren't willing to give their American partners a hand? Is it because they don't want to put their troops into harm's way? Or do they think that the Bush policy of escalation is the wrong way to go? Either way, America is being left high and dry in Iraq. "Go it alone" is just too real now.

From sea to shining sea, America's allies in Iraq are deserting them. I just wonder how many bells will have to crack before Bush hears them toll.