British prepare to return after 45 years

Almost 45 years after the British were forced out of Iraq, they are preparing to return. This time, the British military assembling in northern Kuwait has been assigned to take the lead in occupying southern Iraq, including Basra and the southern oil fields, while the U.S. military pushes on toward Baghdad, according to officials familiar with planning for an invasion.

Given their country's history, British commanders are already worried about the political challenges of an occupation. As the United States and Britain fine-tune their war plans, they have debated what sort of approach to take in southern Iraq, the officials said.

Some commanders are advocating a harsh initial strike that would set an example and encourage surrenders, while others want to focus on winning the goodwill of the Iraqi population.

"You don't want to create ... a poisoned atmosphere," said a senior British officer familiar with the discussions. "The more you can get without firing a bullet, the better the legacy you create in terms of nation-building."

Asked about disagreements among coalition commanders over how hard to hit Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, chief commander of the U.S. and British land forces in Kuwait, said he was concerned about heavy casualties, but added that "when I think of casualties and human life, foremost in my mind, I'm thinking about preventing the loss of coalition lives.

"So if an operation were to happen, we would conduct it in a very decisive manner with the idea of minimising our own losses."

Unlike their U.S. counterparts, the British would be returning to a country where they have a long and bloody past. British troops fought a tough campaign in Iraq against the ruling Ottoman Turks during World War I.

As an occupying force with a mandate from the League of Nations, British soldiers then battled an extensive rebellion by Iraqi nationalists in 1920. Some British troops were still garrisoned in Iraq in 1958, when a bloody coup overthrew the British-installed Hashemite monarchy.

Britain, the only U.S. ally to send a major contingent of troops to join the American force of more than 110,000 poised to attack from Kuwait, has scrambled in recent weeks to catch up with the U.S. deployment. Since late January, 21,000 British troops have arrived in Kuwait, not quite half the expected regional force of 43,000.

The delayed start is part of the reason why the British will focus on southern Iraq, since they do not yet have supply lines capable of moving farther north.

Plans call for British ground troops to enter the country alongside the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, then drop off to oversee Basra and the surrounding area, which includes Iraq's principal port, Umm Qasr and the Rumaila oil field, which represents 60 percent of Iraq's oil capacity.

Already, British officers are debating how to restore law and order in Basra and the extent to which they would be required to the purge the local government of officials from President Saddam Hussain's Baath Party.

Those concerns are exacerbated by a fear that the majority Shiite population, concentrated in southern Iraq, might be unwelcoming; the Shiites rebelled against Saddam during the 1991 war but felt betrayed that U.S. troops never came to their aid.

"You've got to create a legacy where they don't actually hate you," said the senior British officer. "They were waiting for the West, and we never came."