British Troops To Stay In Iraq "At Least Two Years"

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.rense.com/general49/trps.htm

British Troops To Stay
In Iraq "At Least Two Years"
3-3-4


LONDON (AFP) -- British troops will have to remain in Iraq for "at least two years and perhaps more" because of the instability revealed by the bloody attacks in Karbala and Baghdad, British representative Jeremy Greenstock said.

"This is a crunch period for the future of Iraq. Iraqi society has got to realise that they have got to unite against (violence)," he told BBC radio's Today program.

Greenstock, who is responsible for civil administration in southern Iraq, said those who wished to destroy attempts to build a new Iraq planned "to intensify violence in the months leading up to the handover of authority".

He said the attacks Tuesday were part of "the last desperate struggle" of violent people to obstruct the process of nation building. The violence, therefore, "was expected and is very difficult to stop".

Greenstock said British troops would remain after the handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi interim administration in June.

"We will stay here after June," he said. "We are not going to leave."

Asked how long troops would remain, he replied, "My prediction is at least another two years, maybe more than that. They will come down in numbers as the Iraqi capacity grows. There will be a correlation between those things."

"As in the Balkans," Greenstock added. "We will need to be around for longer than we originally planned. I think Britons and Americans need to realise that. We have got a job to do and we are going to finish it."

Greenstock warned that the security situation "is going to be nasty and we always predicted that. There will be further bad days before we are through with this, but the determination of both the coalition and the peaceful majority in Iraqi society has been quite impressive so far, and I am counting on that."

Copyright ? 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.

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