Cutting and Running?

This report from Reuters, which picks up on stories from the UK press, is frankly astounding:

The United States and Britain are planning to pull all their troops out of Iraq by the spring of 2007, two British newspapers reported in their Sunday editions, quoting unnamed senior defense ministry sources.

The Sunday Telegraph said the planned pull-out followed an acceptance by the two governments that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq was now a large obstacle to securing peace.

"The British government is understood to be the driving force behind the withdrawal plan but all 24 coalition members are likely to welcome the move, given the growing international unpopularity of the war," the Telegraph said.

Here's more from the Telegraph story:

The source explained that troop numbers were expected to decrease slightly over the next 12 months but that the bulk of British and American forces, who make up 138,000 of the coalition's 153,000 troops, would be withdrawn simultaneously.
[...]

The Sunday Telegraph understands that coalition forces, comprising troops from 24 countries, will begin to reduce their presence on the ground markedly over the next few months.

They will withdraw to their bases, where they will in effect become a garrison force to be deployed only in emergency.

British Armed Forces are also expected to hand over control of the notoriously dangerous Maysan province, where two soldiers were killed in a bomb attack last week, and the more peaceful al-Muthanna province, in the next few months.

Eventual responsibility for day-to-day security in Iraq will be taken over by the Iraqi Defence Force, which now numbers more than 232,000 police officers and soldiers.

One of the factors in the debate over withdrawal from Iraq has been the impetus of the looming long-term task in Afghanistan, Operation Herrick, which will see the deployment of a further 3,500 British troops.

The source said: "Our presence [in Iraq] is now part of the problem. That is a situation which is now accepted by both governments. We are viewed as an occupation force even though, at the moment, we are in Iraq at the invitation of the government. [ed. note - emphasis mine]