Gobby Yank Wankers!- enough said!
Spams - don't you just love 'em. Never really been that fond of the gung-ho inbreds anyway. Never ceased to amaze me how the 'land of the fat and the home of friendly fire' still find it acceptable to sing the praises of SF/IRA who they armed and funded. Keen on terrorism whem it was 3000 miles away - not so keen after 9/11.
 

Some feebleminded thoughts: I scanned the article 3 times and did NOT see a quote where a US official said the Brits were useless. You may think you are the best soldiers in the world, but the Shiites aren't going to see it that way. After you are gone from Basra they are going to boast that they kicked your ass. Finally, you resort to insulting and name calling an ally. Is that part of the code of the Chosen Men? Like it or not, we have more in common with each other than we do with the enemy. The fight with Islam could take decades and we need to stick together.
 

It really doesn't matter how good the Brits consider their army and their lightweight military presence at Basra to be as they will soon be pulling out of Iraq. Gordon Brown & Co. will have them all out of Basra by the middle of next year at the latest and that will be that; then overstretched US forces will have to fill the vacuum. So much for British "bulldog tenacity"! What a joke! Uncle Sam will have to bear the weight alone, again. Now it's Brown and the Brit army that are surrendering faster than a Royal Navy boarding party! Muqtada al-Sadr and the Mehdi army: 10 Brits: 0
 

Yes, I would certainly agree that the average British soldier is more up to the task for this kind of armed conflict than the Americans. But there were never enough British soldiers in southern Iraq to do the job that they were tasked as effectively as many hoped--and that is the critical fact. Blair committed British land and sea forces to Iraq in concert with the US and on a very poor pretext while running down the UK armed forces at the same time. Thus, the Brits were at a severe disadvantage in trying to do the job they were tasked. Since the 2nd World War (and indeed since before 1945), Britain has had far more experience and success in countering insurgencies than the US armed forces. And while no two insurgencies are the same, the British army has shown itself more than capable of dealing with such conflicts when given the requisite manpower and resources. The US criticisms of British military performance in southern Iraq are quite unfair and unbalanced, especially when compared to the US's record. The Iraq war is another of the US's unprofitable and futile war in which the US will doggedly reinforce failure, as in Vietnam. The Americans were far too short-sighted and did not have adequate organisation and planning in response to dealing with an Iraqi insurgency once the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein was militarily defeated. Indeed, it seems that they did not think about an insurgency at all: hastily disbanding the Iraqi army and then allowing Iraqi armed forces' armouries to be plundered of their weapons, which promptly went into circulation among insurgents. The lack of planned and organised action by the US military in policing Iraq after the defeat of the Iraqi armed forces is close to criminal negligence and mismanagement.
 

As an Irish-American who just recently came back from a tour in Mosul I must say that the British forces are absolutely useless. I was in Basra for a few weeks.

Let's compare:

USA in MOSUL - Patrols, some unarmored (because of lack of equipment) including foot patrols.

BRITS in BASRA - No patrols (absolutely none, but just around their bases) but weekly incursions which produce nothing. Absolutely no foot patrols.

USA in MOSUL - it used to be the most combative and deadly city other than the Triangle of Death... now it is one of the safest and people flock there from across Iraq for refuge.

Brits in BASRA - exact opposite. It was once the safiest city, since that is where the majority of troops arrived in the beginning. Now, it is a warzone...unsafe and bridled by insurgents. Nice job screwing up what the American BIG RED ONE did (they were the first there I believe)

In conclusion: Go ahead and get the fuck out of Iraq... I'll be going back in a few months and I think you guys have done less good and more damage.

P.S. - Nice job with the Iranians too. Your guys just surrendered without a fight. Everyone laughs at you. I lost a cousin to an IED, and a friend (wounded) to a sniper. We may be 'gung-ho' but at least we are soldiers. And those SAS guys are a bunch of jerkoffs. What the hell have they done? the American military has captured every high-ranking terrorist. Without the aid of the SAS (due to different communication channels)
 

the easiest way to prove tat the British army is the god damn best is to look at the the death toll in the time the British army has been in Afghanistan and Iraq we have only lost 184 men in total whilst the loud mouth drunk hill billy's of shit old America have lost over 790 now wot does tat say well i think its self explanatary when i did my tour of Afghanistan i was on patrol we came under fire and were heavily pinned down it got so bad we called air suppourt but the only nearby suppourt was an amrican pilot 5 mins later over came the plane and stupid fuking cunt dropped a bomb which the other half of my section was in i lost 6 friends tat day and i never even had the bottle to go and apologise to the familys of my fallen comrades for calling for help from a useless country its cause of them that my friends died and it cause of them we are losing this war fight the enemy u cunts not ur allies but i seriously hope one day we go to war with America they may think we have a small army now but as soon as that day comes u should watch our numbers grow in the millions as tere is so many people tat hate the yanks so i say fuk the Americans go fight ur own war without us just like in vietnam and look how well u did tere ..
 

I think your all nobs yanks and Brit soldiers,you should listen to yourselves actin like kids in the playground "I'm better than you" no"I'm better than you" your as bad as each other and before anyone starts,I am British. You soldiers are just puppets who lack the ability to make up ya own minds you just do as our told by your spine less superiors who stand back and watch you go to your deaths, how gullible can you get? Your government could not give a toss about you and you can't see it. You go to war with the best equipment and get your asses smashed by a bunch of ragtag Neanderthals, best in the world my arse! Britain constantly claims to be the best at this and that wot crap! Two world wars aside Britain only ever went to war against other "armies" armed with sticks and spears whilst the Brits had guns,battles against the Zulus anyone? Get real and open your eyes people if you want to go to war start with taking out your own useless governments,now that would impress me heaps, would even join you for that one. I'm not questioning the bravery of soldiers there brave beyond belief just a terrible shame they die for very little-such a waste.Yes I have friends in the forces some are even still alive,the ones that are no longer with us died for nothing-there loved ones ruined for a lifetime