It's a pity the the Government did not consider Britain's National interest when entering this crass stupidity in the first place. Bit late now to blather on about National interest when it was totally ignored at the start. It's quite clear that we cannot just pull out at the drop of a hat, but if you are not prepared to do a job properly, then don't start it in the first place. Interfering half heartedly and ineffectively is the worst possible approach.

Doug, Glasgow,

Come on, Mr Miliband. I admire your courage to say what you said, but of course the US will dictate our pullout of Iraq, the same as it has dictated our presence there for 4 years. Sadly our economy is pants without American investment and after having annihilated nearly all our manufacturing sector, we need their money more than ever, we have never been so dependant on them (more than in WWII). If anyone is not sure about this, ask anyone working in the City. If we want to keep enjoying certain traditional privileges in Britain, we’ll need to go hand in hand with Uncle Sam wherever they want to go. If anyone knows an alternative, let me know because, believe it or not, I loathe our involvement with the US.

f rivas, luton, uk

What does this 'silly little wet behind the ears school boy' Miliband konw about it?

d case, newquay,

Whatever else this Government has done, it has certainly not acted in Britain's national interest. Nor has it taken any notice of its own electorate. It has slavishly followed US foreign policy, and whether that was in the US national interest is highly doubtful.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

It is right for the British government to do what is in the British interest, not that of the USA or Israel.
Americans who believe the war in Iraq is in their interest are misguided. Approaching a Trillion $ on the war and New Orleans is still a bundle of Matchsticks. Any American supporting this war over the desperate needs of thier fellow patriots are ignorant or have interests other than the national good!

kal, belfast, uk

Our guys in Basra are in the unenviable position of being undermanned and under equipped thanks to Blair but mainly Brown during his stint as Chancellor. They have been reduced to little more than a glorified Gendarmarie reliant on American air power. Ordered to stay put to keep casualties down they are effectively sitting ducks. How perverse these politicians who will not give them what they need to fight and in the absence of that, do not have the cajones to pull them out. The humiliation of the army and the reputation of our country lies firmly with the charlatans that call themselves the UK Parliament. The army should come home forthwith and do us all a favour by overthrowing this clique. If thy chose to dispatch said charlatans à la Ceauşescu, they would, undoubtably enjoy the adulation of a grateful nation.

Mark, London, UK

Graeme,

The UK electorate were given a chance to dictate foreign policy whenever they voted in the last general election.

They decided not to vote out the government. Your glib sentiment is not clever commentary, it simply displays a fundamental misunderstanding of how our democracy works.

bp in sunnyvale your comment reeks of unpleasant bigotry.

We have an obligation to try our best to see through what was started, simple as that. Anything else that we feel about the rights or wrongs of what happened before or what happens after this point in time is an unnecessary distraction to an unpleasant task.

Damien, London,

Hey BP. You talk about weakness, when you country crumbled from just one terrorist attack. All it took was 9/11.

J.C , Weymouth, UK

Bp of Sunny vale

Typical reaction from the undereducated .
It is not 'England' but 'Great Britain' .

The Empire finished years ago, read your books and stop believing Hollywood.

And no we wont change our name to muhamad or bow down to Mecca either..

You embarrass yourself.

PH, Perthshire, Scotland

bp, in Sunnyvale - we aren't the embarrassment here. This 'Europe is falling to the Muslims' meme that you wingnuts love so much is based on pure fantasy, abetted by the fact that you don't get out very much. Stick to Fox News - its untruths will fit your worldview perfectly.

Huw Bowen, Warwick, UK

To bp, sunnyvale, usa and all those sitting in their nice cosy homes enjoying and living their lives as they please.
Just a few facts for you to ponder over while you are having fun with your loved ones.

1.14m Iraqis displaced by the War.

Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost, homes destroyed, families displaced, Fathers, mothers, sisters daughters, brothers, sons seperated from each other.

And want to stay the course and finish off whet you started!!!
You don't know what you have started, you think you know what you have started.

And as you are the ones who have started it might take others to finish it.

Time to think hard before you make further irrational decisions.

Farrukh, Baghdad, Iraq

Sirs,
Since when was the presence of the British army in Iraq ever been in the 'British national interest'?

Mr Blair's unbelievable act of folly in partnering the US-led invasion has achieved nothing positive, has cost untold Iraqi lives, destabilised the region and given his successors the unenviable task of engineering an organised withdrawal.

If 'British national interest' is truly the deciding factor for our government, then plans for withdrawal should already be in place. Whenever it happens, it will be ignominious.

Mr B. Kowal, London,

Who madfe this guy a minister?

Its time for UK to have an election because these people talk before they think.

Dharmesh Bhardwaj, Brampton, canada

"US will not dictate our pullout from Iraq"
No, and sadly neither will the UK electorate!

Graeme, Paisley, Scotland

Hopefully they will have learned from the prince Harry fiasco. Don't telegraph your moves. Surely it is not beyond the wit of British troops to simply get in their tanks, jeeps and lorries one evening and just drive over the border into Kuwait. Job done. Mayhem would ensue in their wake of course but mayhem will ensue however they do it. The only other way out is to colonise the place and be done with it.

John, Dundee, UK

by failing to pull out now we are wasting the lives of our young and brave men. The politicians are waiting for some kind of green light for political cover. The end result is inevitable, Iraq is lost, as is Afghanistan.

Akram, London,

All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Pinguin, San Francisco, USA

I find the term "British national interest" highly disturbing in this context. It reminds me of Gordon Brown's statement regarding Britain's reason for going into Iraq as reported on a BBC webpage on 3/5/07 (but redacted very quickly and never reported elsewhere, to my knowledge):

"We believed we were making the right decision in the British national economic interest and of course we have lessons to learn... about the way things were done like the dossier but at the end of the day we wanted the security of Britain and the British national interest to be advanced."

Michael Edwards, Edinburgh,

A once mighty empire and valued ally is now to weak to be much good to anyone....England is an embarrassment as is the rest of Europe..Let them all change their name to Muhamad and bow down to Mecca...

bp, sunnyvale, usa

Although I am a paid-up member of the Liberal Democrats(and hold Sir Ming in high esteem) I do believe that our Premier is right over Basra.We must finish what we began!We must see it through properly.

H.D., W.s.Mare,