What will be our Iraq legacy?

ABOUT 100 miles south-east of Baghdad, on the wind-blown banks of the river Tigris, lies the tumbledown city of Kut. The land around Kut is unusually fertile and local people grow grain. Nearby lies the ruined Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility, looted following the 2003 invasion.

Not so far away is a small cemetery. Until recently, the headstones were slowly crumbling into dust in the stifling heat and the main memorial was only part-visible from a pool of slimy stagnant water. Perhaps that isn’t so surprising.

The Kut cemetery contains the names of the 40,000 British and Empire soldiers who died defending Iraq during the First World War.

Britain played a pivotal role in shaping modern- day Iraq. It started in 1915 when a small army failed to drive the Turks out of Baghdad.

When they returned in force, British generals faced the same problems that would trouble their successors almost 100 years later.

Yet warnings that trying to appease three warring tribes – Sunni, Shia and Kurds – was an impossible job went unheeded in London.

The British Army faced two decades of uprisings and insurgent attacks before the UK finally threw in the towel.

In March 2003, they returned, as the US-led invasion began.

At the time, Tony Blair famously promised that “Iraq will be a significantly better place as a result of the action that we have taken”, but six years later, what success can Britain claim?

No weapons of mass destruction were ever found, of course, but 179 British personnel – 178 servicemen and women and a civilian Ministry of Defence worker – gave their lives.

British forces invaded Iraq in March, 2003 under a cloud of political controversy about the legality of military action and amid intense public opposition to the conflict.

After an initial honeymoon period when many Iraqis welcomed them as liberators, the UK troops found themselves mired in a vicious Iran-backed Shiite insurgency.

But, after more than six years in the country, they are now returning home, leaving southern Iraq a more peaceful and optimistic place.

The security situation in the city of Basra is greatly improved, although reconstructing the infrastructure – rebuilding shattered homes and ensuring everyone has access to clean water and electricity – will take much longer.

Yesterday’s ceremony, when Major General Andy Salmon, Britain’s senior commander in Iraq, handed over command of coalition forces in Basra to the US, was largely symbolic. The Iraqi army and its police force have been largely in control of the port city for months.

The security situation may have improved, but Basra is still a dangerous place. Only this week, British soldiers came under fire in a supposedly safe area of the city. Embarrassingly, they had been showing regional TV crews how the city was now safe under the protection of Iraqi army units.

Historians will debate the political and military rights and wrongs of the Iraq war for many decades to come.

After the initial euphoria that Saddam had been ousted, Iraqi people became disenchanted with their Anglo-US liberators. British forces – who made so much of their battle for the “hearts and minds” of the people of Basra – found themselves embroiled in a vicious insurgency. The softly-softly policy of only wearing caps for street patrols soon gave way to full body armour and helmets.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has suggested it was Britain’s ‘‘most disastrous foreign policy blunder’’ since the Suez crisis more than 50 years ago.

The drawn-out battle in Iraq against an often invisible enemy put a huge strain on the troops.

Among the worst losses of life were the murder of six Red Caps by an angry mob in June 2003, and the deaths of ten personnel when an RAF Hercules was shot down near Baghdad, in January 2005.

Both incidents led to embarrassing questions for ministers about how well British servicemen and women were equipped.

There was further controversy about a number of prisoner abuse scandals involving UK troops, but it should not be forgotten that Britain’s forces also demonstrated great stoicism and heroism.

This was exemplified by Private Johnson Beharry, who became the first person to be awarded the Victoria Cross in more than two decades for his extraordinary bravery during two fierce ambushes in the southern city of Al Amarah.

British generals acknowledge the campaign has been extremely difficult, but say they are leaving Basra a much better place.

And there have been major strides, not least the successful provincial elections in January.

Despite the fighting, Iraq saw economic growth of ten per cent last year (albeit from a very low base-line), some four million children have received vaccinations since 2003, 3,000 schools have been refurbished and the security forces now number 65,000.

That’s a view the British Army is keen to endorse.

Major Gen Salmon said in a recent interview: ‘‘I can put my hand on my heart and say we’ve finished this right.’’ But the UK leaves behind a mixed legacy.

People in Basra are grateful to be free from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, but some blame the foreign troops for the troubles that have beset their country since 2003. A recent survey found that only 36 per cent of Iraqis believed the presence of British forces had been positive and 42 per cent felt it was negative.

At least the UK pullout brings Iraq a step closer to taking control of its own destiny. As one soldier said recently: “It’s not about how it begins, it’s about how it ends.”

Remembering our soldiers who fell in Iraq

Royal Marine Christopher Maddison, 24, of Scarborough – 9 Assault Squadron Royal Marines; Corporal Simon Miller, 21, of Washington, Tyne & Wear – Royal Military Police; Lance-Corporal Benjamin John McGowan Hyde, 23, of Northallerton, North Yorks – Royal Military Police; Flight Sergeant Mark Gibson, 34, of York – 47 Squadron, RAF; Private Mark Dobson, 41, of County Durham – B (Green Howards) Company, Tyne-Tees Regiment; Guardsman Anthony Wakefield, 24, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne – 1st Battalion The Coldstream Guards; Private Michael Tench, 18, of Sunderland – 2nd Battalion the Light Infantry; Rifleman Aaron Lincoln, 18, of Durham – 2nd Battalion, The Rifles; Corporal Kris O’Neill, 27, of Catterick – Royal Army Medical Corps; Sergeant Mark McLaren, 27, of Ashington, Northumberland – 230 Squadron, RAF; Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, of South Shields, South Tyneside, – Intelligence Corps.