9.6 |
27 June 2007 to April 2008
“the US
would have to take on certain additional tasks and resource
commitments”,
specifically:
•
a
commitment of around 50 staff to the composite
headquarters;
•
MiTTing of
10 Division;
•
border
security;
•
reform and
retraining of the Iraqi Police Service; and
•
a package
of enablers amounting to around 750 US personnel.
1041.
Lt Gen
Houghton reported that Gen Petraeus “readily understood the UK
policy
context and
was content with the scale of the continued UK commitment and
the
potential
division of tasks”. More detailed work was needed but “in principle
we had
an agreement”.
1042.
Gen Petraeus
visited Basra and gave an upbeat account of his visit at
the
meeting of
the MCNS on 27 April.513
He
congratulated the Iraqi Government on a job well
done. The
situation was transformed, but the ISF would need to stay focused
and not
relapse
into static routine. Operations in the Five Mile Market area had
been successful
and the ISF
were now moving on al-Qurnah.
1043.
In his weekly
report, Lt Gen Cooper recorded that Gen Petraeus had
commented
twice
during the meeting “I can live with this”, but also observed that
the situation was
“not
optimal”.514
Lt Gen
Cooper commented:
“The bill
of manpower that the UK equity leaves the US (and specifically
MND-C
[Multi-National
Division (Centre)]) to find will be possible, but will create some
local
pain and
include a degree of reprioritising. We should not underestimate the
pain
that will
fall to Lt Gen Lloyd Austin’s MNC-I, but I am confident that he
will learn to
live with
it.”
1044.
Mr Prentice
told the Inquiry that Gen Petraeus and Ambassador
Crocker:
“…
definitively wished to preserve our participation in the coalition.
They sensed …
a wish in
London to draw a line under Iraq and to get our forces out as soon
as
possible,
and they suspected somewhat a rush to draw down … [They]
understood
the
political realities for us, and also they had their understanding
of the rising
demands
from Afghanistan and other theatres.”515
1045.
Mr McDonald
updated the Iraq Strategy Group on Mr Brown’s visit to
Washington
on 28
April.516
He reported
that on troop numbers “the Prime Minister had stated
his
513
eGram
16416/08 Baghdad to FCO London, 28 April 2008, ‘Iraq: Ministerial
Committee on National
Security 27
April 2008’.
514
Minute
Cooper to CDS, 28 April 2008, ‘SBMR-I’s Weekly Report (298) 28 Apr
08’.
515
Private
hearing, 15 June 2010, pages 71-72.
516
Letter
Cabinet Office [junior official] to McDonald, 28 April 2008, ‘Iraq
Strategy Group, 28 April’.
377