Iraq - Troops in or out?

Jonathan Steele writing in Guardian can't make his mind up. Norm notes Steele's lack of logic.

... pulling foreign troops out would almost certainly improve Iraq's security, since much of the violence is directed against the occupation. Without the occupation, the insurgency would decline dramatically.

Leave aside the fact that - as Harry has already indicated - there might be a worry for many Iraqis if there were a precipitate withdrawal of US and British forces. But even taking Steele's logic on its own terms, it somehow changes... all of one line later in his article:

Has [Blair] not noticed that in Basra and the other two south-eastern provinces where British forces are based the insurgency barely exists?... Basra has been quiet for months. Suicide bombers are conspicuous by their absence. Attacks on British forces are rare, and fatalities even rarer.

Norm continues the good fisking Steele deserves. I gave him a good fisking recently as well.
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