U.K. to Send Troops Into U.S.-Controlled Area of Iraq (Update4)

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government, risking criticism from lawmakers in the ruling Labour Party, said it will redeploy 850 troops now in southern Iraq to a region controlled by U.S. forces.

The Black Watch regiment will relieve American troops needed for an attack on rebels in Fallujah. The move will help stabilize Iraq ahead of elections due in January, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said. Britain has 8,500 troops in Iraq.

This deployment is a vital part of the process of creating the right conditions for the Iraqi elections to take place,'' Hoon told parliament in London. Labour lawmakers including Dennis Skinner and Glenda Jackson objected to the move, saying it would help U.S. President George W. Bush in the final two weeks of his re-election campaign.It’s slightly ironic that the American president and his vice president, who both refused to face the muck and bullets in Vietnam, are now calling on British forces to bail them out,’’ Skinner said in parliament after Hoon’s statement.

In the U.S., the British redeployment hasn’t yet registered as significant to Bush’s campaign against Democratic Senator John F. Kerry, according to James Lucier, a political analyst for Prudential Equity Group LLC in Washington.

It certainly helps Bush to have evidence of cooperation, and assistance of British military forces is appreciated, but it's not a central item of political strategy,'' Lucier said in a telephone interview. He said bush probably will waita week or two’’ to begin any siege in Fallujah after the election.

Labour Opposition

In Britain, 58 of Labour’s 407 members of parliament including two former members of Blair’s cabinet signed a motion calling for a parliamentary vote on the decision.

They’re concerned that more military casualties and questions about Blair’s handling of the war in Iraq are hurting the government’s popularity. Blair may call the next general election in the middle of next year.

There is a political cost to this decision,'' said John Denham, who served as a junior minister for Blair in the health department and Home Office from 1998 until he resigned in 2003 to protest the war in Iraq. Black Watch troops may suffer higher casualties as they move to an area with more rebel fighters, said Turi Munthe, head of the Middle East program at the Royal United Services Institute, a London military consultant that counts the Ministry of Defence among its clients. `More Risk'It involves more combat than they’ve been involved in, so obviously they’re at greater risk,’’ Munthe said. They'll be at the fringes of the insurgency.'' More than 1,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since fighting began in March 2003. Britain, whose troops have been based in the south of the nation mainly around Basra, have lost 68 soldiers during the same period. Blair's popularity has fallen amid questions about his handling of the Iraq war. The ruling Labour Party had support from 39 percent of voters in September, down from 42 percent when Blair won a second term in 2001, according to a poll of 1,020 people by ICM Ltd. The survey had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Blair may call another election next year. Attacks on Black Watch troops may damage Blair's standing further, said Munthe, the defense consultant. The capture and killing of Kenneth Bigley, a British contract worker taken hostage in Baghdad, featured prominently in British media during September and October. Target for Rebels Black Watch troops arean attractive political tool to the insurgents,’’ Munthe said. After the extraordinary, unpleasant debacle of Ken Bigley, the insurgents must be very well aware of how sensitive the British public is to the war in Iraq and to failures in the war in Iraq.'' An opinion poll taken after Bigley's capture showed most British voters oppose the war in Iraq, with 53 percent saying it was wrong compared to 33 percent who approved, according to a poll by Populus Ltd. The poll was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 4 among 1,004 adults. Blair said yesterday the Black Watch would be home in time for Christmas. Hoon denied reports that the U.K. would send a further 1,300 troops to the region, saying there wereno plans’’ beyond the move he announced today.

Conservative Backing

Nicholas Soames, the opposition Conservative Party’s spokesman on defense, supported Hoon’s decision, saying it was a necessary military operation to bring peace and stability to Iraq'' before the elections. The Black Watch, a Scottish infantry regiment, was founded in 1725 and deployed against Napoleon, Hitler and in the Boer wars in southern Africa. It operated more recently in Northern Ireland and in the republics of the former Yugoslavia in a peacekeeping role. It is one of the British units in Iraq that are most capable of combat, Munthe said.There is a clear-cut operational imperative and it is both sensible and reasonable to respond positively,’’ General Michael Walker, chief of the U.K. defence staff said at a press conference. It represents an important and viable military task.'' Labour members of parliament were more critical of the troops' success to date and the plans Hoon announced today. Robin Cook, Blair's former foreign secretary, said the U.K. risks being blamed for more of the civilian casualties in Iraq.This operation which the present deployment of British troops will reinforce has been a total unmitigated failure,’’ said Jackson, a Labour lawmaker better known for her role in films including A Touch of Class'' andWomen in Love’’ in 1974 and 1971. ``Far from eradicating terrorist centres, it has encouraged acts of terrorism.’’ (Bloomberg)

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