UK Troops Return Basra to Iraqis

Shouldn't we be at least planning the same? Not if George has anything to do with it. Our allies are smart to abandon this quagmire the neocons have gotten us into:

British troops on Sunday handed over responsibilty for security in the southern Iraqi province of Basra, a major landmark in the scaling-back of the foreign military presence nearly five years on from the U.S.-led invasion.

[...] Britain has been in command of the south since the Iraqi war began, with its troops based in Basra. It has been working to withdraw its troops from the region which, despite this latest violence, has always been more stable than Baghdad and other outlying regions.

There are roughly 5,000 British troops there now, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government has announced plans to cut its force to about 4,500 by the end of December.

[...] The British military, which is now emphasizing the training of local troops and police, plans to reduce its troop deployment to 2,500 by spring.

"There are now 30,000 Iraqi police and armed forces in the region," the defense Ministry said in a statement on its Web site last week.