Bring our boys back from Iraq ...

Gathered around our current Queen's grandfather King George V, as he lay close to death , those present put on their best of British brave faces in an effort to ease his expected imminent expiry.

"You'll soon be up & about and back in Bognor, sir," they lied. They referred of course to Bognor Regis, the King's favourite British holiday haunt.

"Bugger, Bognor!" the monarch managed to mumble -- then promptly passed away.

And so it transpired that a further set of famous last words had found a place in Britain's history.

Right now, many British soldiers are expressing equally, easily understood emotions en masse.

From Asia Minor's ancient Mesopotamia, the message we're beginning to hear from our brave boys in uniform could hardly be more clear.

It's "Bugger, Basra!"

Witness what one squaddie had to say to the Sunday Mirror.

Our brave troops, largely forgotten amid the July terror attacks and New Orleans floods, will stay as long as they are told to.

But, for the first time, officers and squaddies are thinking the unthinkable. They are saying out loud that staying in Iraq is no longer making things better.

One soldier speaks for many when he says: "It's time to get home.

There is no point in anyone else dying here. We are past the time that we are needed here in Basra. We have done enough."

Note that it's not just the rank & file who are fed up either, fine fearless fellahs though they be.

In private, senior officers are growing exasperated by the lack of any clear exit strategy.

And I can see why. For the past two weeks 6,000 British troops have been in virtual lockdown in Basra.

It seems the brass are becoming as pissed off as are the privates. Eh?

Some platoon commanders now make their displeasure plain.

Why, platoon commanders ask, should they take unnecessary risks with their men's lives for a cause - trying to maintain security - which is now almost lost?

Then there's this.

The Commanding Officer of 1 Coldstream Guards battle group, Nick Henderson, says he has asked for more Warrior armoured vehicles for his soldiers because they are the only vehicles strong enough to ensure his troops will get back home alive when their tour ends in five weeks.

When even the Commanding Officer of the Coldstream Guards wants to wade in with his own words of war-wisdom ....... well ...... what can one really say?

Surely, silence is supposed to be golden where such seniority is concerned. But when it isn't, one can't help but wonder what other surprises may soon be in store.

The truth is, our own troops have finally figured out for themselves, the absolute futility of the whole farcical affair.

Thanks to the boy blunder Blair, they're well & truly bogged down in an impossible position.

Continued involvement in any Iraq occupation is quite simply no longer in our own nation's national interests. Blair & Bush's illegal war has become our unarguably, unwinnable war.

Let's face it, Tony Blair bought a pig in poke -- and it was George W. Bush - his blood brother - who sold it to him.

But it's other poor buggers who are paying the price. Every day. In blood.

So This Old Brit suggests we should all shout out together.

Bugger, Basra. Bugger, Baghdad. Bugger, Blair. Bugger, Bush.

And bring our boys back from bloody, Iraq.

* See what else the Sunday Mirror says on the subject.

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=16143821%26method=full%26siteid=62484%26headline=the%2dmessage%2dfrom%2dour%2dtroops%2din%2diraq%2d%2dit%2ds%2dtime%2dto%2dcome%2dhome-name_page.html