British troops blow up Iraqi police station – huh?
This would seem to be wierd. CBC is reporting that British troops just attacked and destroyed an Iraqi police station in Basra.
The article is interesting but it’s delivered almost entirely without analysis, context or even the most basic explanation.
Some questions I would have liked answered:
- Didn’t the US and Britain recruit, train and arm the Iraqi police as part of the “dawn of a new age of democracy in Iraq” (say eye-Rack)
- The story intimates that the police stationed in the now-dust police station were a symbol of terror and repression to the local population. It suggests they were death squads carrying out assassinations. Against who?
- Are things in Iraq now so totally out of control that the US and Britain are now at war with the people they gave guns to?
Oh my. I appreciate this rare insight into the actual situation in Iraq – however fragmented and incomplete – it’s nice when the junior staff, no doubt dragooned into working over the holidays, get a chance to run the show.
