High time

In the Sunday Times at the weekend Colonel Tim Collins, writing about the sending of soldiers of the Black Watch into the US zone in Iraq, says the following:

The current conditions certainly demand immediate action. There is a pressing need to expand the coalition, to relieve the burden on America and to increase aid and encouragement to the fledgling Iraqi administration. In other words, perhaps a diplomatic offensive is called for rather than a military one.

I take the simple view: putting aside the rights and wrongs of the spring 2003 offensive, it is high time the international community and the UN put its full weight behind the stabilisation of Iraq.

Yes, high time. Collins also talks of the intense speculation about the motivation behind the deployment of these British troops. Elsewhere in the paper this report tells a story about that which I'd not seen before:

The decision to send Black Watch troops into Iraq's "triangle of death" followed requests by British military chiefs to take over a US-controlled area.

British officers have been "champing at the bit" for months to be allowed the chance to demonstrate what they believed are superior skills in restoring order, according to a senior military source.

Some officers believe that American 'heavy-handedness' in Iraq is prolonging the conflict. The revelation casts new light on the decision to send 850 British troops to boost American forces. The official position remains that Washington asked for support. It led to accusations that Britain was boosting President George W Bush's election ambitions by supporting the campaign.

However, the request came only after British officers made it clear to their American counterparts that they would be receptive to an approach. Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, has not revealed the extent of the British Army's enthusiasm for the mission for fear of appearing critical of America.

General Sir Mike Jackson, chief of the general staff, is among senior British officers who have praised British successes in southern Iraq and regretted that the forces had not taken over an area in or around Baghdad at the start of the war.