On 17 December 2008, Gordon Brown, speaking alongside the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at a press conference in Basra, announced that UK forces will leave Iraq by the end of July next year.
Announcement of the British Troop Withdrawal
In the joint statement made in Basra on 17 December 2008, the leaders said "The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close. These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq.” (10 Downing Street Website)
At the conference, Brown stated that there was an agreement to end military action by "no later than" 31 May 2009, and that the troop withdrawal would occur in the following two months.
This announcement comes after the Iraqi cabinet met to draw up a draft law which states that all foreign forces must leave by the end of next July. The US forces are covered under a seperate agreement, allowing them to remain in Iraq until 2011.
At a press conference later that day with journalists in Basra, the issue was brought up that by an anonymous journalist that, although Iraq is now a much safer place than it was, it is still not as safe as it could be. When asked about the criticism the Prime Minister had recieved about a premature withdrawal, Gordon Brown replied: "Well most of the places I have visited today I couldn’t have done a few months ago, and I think that is the change that is actually taking place." (10 Downing Street Website)
Brown seems confident that this is the right decision, and this announcement comes in conjunction with the US President-Elect, Barack Obama's vow to also remove American Forces from Iraq in the coming months.
Opposition Ask for Iraq War Inquiry
The leaders of the two main political parties in the UK, the Conservative's and the Liberal Democrat's have called for an inquiry into the nature of the Iraq War.
In an article on the Conservative Party website released on 18 December 2008, Tory leader David Cameron called for an independent inquiry, citing that"If we do not learn from the mistakes of the past, we are more likely to make them again in the future."
Cameron also attacked Gordon Brown's decision to wait until all troops have left Iraq before starting the investigation.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat party leader, also called for an inquiry on the Lib Dem website, with an announcement on the 18 December, but he also accused the government of covering George Bush's back and called the war a "disaster"
The Prime Minister also laid a wreath in rememberance of the 178 troops that have died in Iraq since the invasion in 2003.
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