10.2 |
Reconstruction: July 2004 to July 2009
•
PCRU
officials were visiting Iraq to explore how civil/military
co-ordination could
be
improved.
656.
The official
commented:
“… it is
important to be realistic about what can be achieved and in what
timeframe.
The Armed
Forces can interpret ‘short-term’ to be 48 hours but for DFID it
means
6 months.”
657.
The Inquiry
has seen no indications that Mr Brown or Treasury officials
replied
to Maj
Gen Shirreff.
658.
Maj Gen
Shirreff raised his concerns with Mr Blair at the end of
December.
659.
Section 9.5
describes President Bush’s decision in late November to
deploy
additional
US troops to Iraq to conduct a full-scale counter-insurgency
campaign in
Baghdad,
the UK’s response to that decision, and US concerns over UK plans
to draw
down troops
in the South.
660.
In preparation
for the 7 December meeting of DOP(I), officials prepared a paper
on
military
plans for southern Iraq in 2007 and a paper on the UK’s objectives
and presence
in
Basra.
661.
The MOD paper
on military plans for southern Iraq reported that Op
SINBAD
could
create the conditions to achieve PIC in Basra as early as March
2007.375
The
intention
was to “re-posture” UK troops from bases in Basra City to BAS at
the end
of Op
SINBAD. From there, UK forces would perform a “Military Assistance
Mission”.
That would
lead to a reduction in troop numbers from 7,100 to 4,500 in May
2007, and
possible
further reductions later in the year.
662.
The Basra
paper, which was produced by the FCO, considered the
implications
of that
re-posturing and of the continuing security threat to civilian
operations.376
The
FCO paper
recommended aiming for PIC in Basra at some point between March
and
June 2007.
The civilian effort would be led from BAS as there was no prospect
of being
able to
return to the BPC. Although this meant a limit on the number of
civilian staff
and tougher
conditions, there would be “significant advantages in co-location
with the
military –
making possible a more cohesive approach”.
663.
The FCO
recommended that the main objectives of the civilian effort during
2007
should be
to:
•
help
deliver PIC in Basra;
375
Paper MOD,
5 December 2006, ‘UK Military Plans for southern Iraq in
2007’.
376
Paper FCO,
1 December 2006, ‘Basra: Objectives and Presence in
2007’.
303