max hastings was writing about the forthcoming decision as to whether or not let the black watch go help out the americans in baghdad.
in part of his piece was this, it was there to show how communication between american and british troops might be a problem.
"Years ago, I met a staff officer who served with the British brigade that met disaster against the Chinese on the Imjin river in Korea, in April 1951. He believed its fate was partly attributable to the fact that American higher commanders did not understand British parlance: "When our brigadier told the US corps commander that things were 'a bit sticky', the Americans did not respond effectively, because they did not get the message that this meant 'absolutely critical'."
now as proud as i am being english there is a moment when i read the above when i thought mmm i have to say i am with the americans here.
to me a bit sticky just means a bit of bother.
a case of too much stiff upper lip methinks.
the lesson here is when the shit hits the fan cry out for help.
the decision to send the british troops to aid the americans has been made, and it can only be seen as a token effort as it is only approximately 650 troops. i can only hope that this has been done for military reasons. as part of the coalition we can't ignore a request for help from an ally (i know this ignores whether we should be there in the first place- but we are there so we have to deal with that).
however if the request was made for political reasons in order to aid bush, then i think it will go very badly for blair. if the only reasons they are there is to allow bush to say that there is a working coalition of the willing and that not only americans are dying - then there is something deeply wrong with both blair and bush.
(as cynical as i am i would like to think that neither of them would do something like that).
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problem is you have to deal with the situation there and not what could have been.
now we are in there we have to make a good job of it to make sure that the area does not become any more unstable than it already is.
with iran potentially have nuclear weapons, and isreal (who does have nuclear weapons)stating that they are ready to launch a pre-emptive strike on iran, the last thing anyone wants is a very destabilized iraq.
so come what may there is a job there that needs to be done.
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