Outside the Bubble: Brit Military Debates Iraq Pullout

Unlike the American media, which either ignored or (CNN) merely parroted BBC Television's report on the leaked Ministry of Defense "academic research" document yesterday, the British newspaper The Guardian moves the story ahead today with more details on the document. Specifically, the paper quotes the author of the document, a staff officer at the Defence (sic) Academy, a think tank, as writing:

"British armed forces are effectively held hostage in Iraq - following the failure of the deal being attempted by COS [chief of staff] to extricate UK armed forces from Iraq on the basis of 'doing Afghanistan' - and we are now fighting (and arguably losing or potentially losing) on two fronts."

The paper itself finds a "defense source" who characterizes the debate this way:

"What is more important, Afghanistan or Iraq?" a senior defence source asked yesterday. "There is a group within the Ministry of Defence pushing hard to get troops out of Iraq to get more into Afghanistan."

Bush administration supporters can, and do, argue that last weekend's leak of NIE findings regarding Iraq were timed for the upcoming American midterm elections. But, with Tony Blair safely in power for another year, what can the political motivation be for the British leak--unless it's the increasing frustration of those in the military with the policy they're being ordered to carry out? That, regardless of what your position on the war is, is a dangerous situation for a democracy.