Signals soldiers given Iraq medals

60 communication specialists from 20th Armoured Brigade (The Iron Fist), the last serving British brigade in Iraq, received their operational medals this week in front of family, friends and partners.

Paderborn-based 200 Signal Squadron, which supports the Brigade Headquarters, were responsible for shutting down the communication networks in the south of Iraq while handing command over to the Americans.

Brigadier Tom Beckett (late Para) presented all first-time recipients of the TELIC medal on Wednesday 1 July 2009, followed by a speech in which he congratulated all members of the Headquarters and 200 Signal Squadron saying:

"The brigade has been there three times and to see our collective efforts over the last six years produce a good result in Basra is great.

"TELIC 13 was historic because it was the last British tour in Iraq and done successfully."

Troops from 200 Signal Squadron were based at the majority of British force locations in southern Iraq including as far south as the port at Umm Qasr and at Iranian border crossings.

Brigadier Tom Beckett shakes hands with Colonel Henry A Kievenaar III at the hand over - Evening Standard

Last brigade in Iraq lowers its flag

Last brigade in Iraq lowers its flag

The end of British combat operations in Iraq has been marked in Basra today by the lowering of 20th Armoured Brigade's flag.

We were liberators - Guardian

There is no talk of victory but my men and I fought to make a better place of Basra - and succeeded.

On 7 April 2003, 1 Para Battle Group entered Ad Dayr, north of Basra, on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab. It was a Saddam-regime stronghold and its defence by regime fighters had been expected. The fighters, however, had fled the night before and the battle group was welcomed into the town with open arms. There was no doubt in their minds that we had liberated them from tyranny.

I still have the photographs, taken by our embedded Press Association photographer, of women and children running towards us with their arms aloft and their faces bright with joy and relief. As the 20th Armoured Brigade, the last UK brigade to serve in Iraq, prepares to depart, we celebrate the courage and fortitude of the servicemen and women who have served in Iraq, in particular the 179 who died. At the same time, we must not forget the ordinary people of southern Iraq for whom we fought. General Rupert Smith coined the expression "war amongst the people", which neatly describes today's conflicts: we must consider the impact our actions had on the people of Basra.

For readers in Britain this may seem an odd sentiment but, as you affirm your views of the rights and wrongs of this conflict, you should not forget the reality of a 21st-century soldier's work. This is the 20th Armoured Brigade's third tour of Iraq, and some of our number have done four tours. In six years this means we have lived for at least 18 months among Iraqis and spent a further nine to 12 months preparing for the tours. We saw the good times immediately after the liberation (for those who dismiss the term, be assured that the Iraqi army brigade commanders with whom I work always correct me if I say invasion); we saw the ups and downs of fighting and reconstruction from 2004 through to 2007; and we have seen the peace - immature, admittedly, but growing - of 2008 and 2009.

We have lived and breathed Iraq, and its prospects concern us. We want to know that our blood and your treasure have not been wasted. Soldiers fight for their friends, their section and their regiment. Armies fight to achieve goals set by governments. But soldiers also want to know that the people among whom they fought have a better peace ahead of them.

Fifteen British brigades have served in southern Iraq. The 20th Armoured Brigade will bear witness to the better peace that lies ahead for Basrawis. We can tell our comrades that their efforts achieved a good result. We won't ever talk about victory - it's an outdated strategic concept anyway - but we will talk about success.

The Iraqi army we helped train, aided by the Iraqi police, provides security for Basra and its citizens. Of that, there can be no doubt. The police, currently being trained by American soldiers, improve steadily. Free and fair provincial elections were held in January in a secure environment without intimidation or fear. The old council, perceived not to have delivered the essential services people wanted, was voted out. A new council now sits. In this newly won stability, reconstruction gathers pace. These are the successes that your servicemen and women helped achieve. From these, Basrawis have a better peace and Basra is a better place for it.

It's not yet perfect and there will be hurdles in the way but, just as Colour Sergeant Pepper, about whom Audrey Gillan wrote in the Guardian this week, needed to check on an Iraqi family caught up in his August 2004 battle, our comrades can be reassured that Basrawis, liberated from tyranny in 2003, have a better peace ahead of them in 2009.

• Brigadier Tom Beckett is the commander of 20th Armoured Brigade and all British forces in Basra

York Squadron Leader Damon Middleton looks forward to return home after Iraq service - The Press

HE could not be home in time to celebrate Easter with his family, but this York RAF pilot is now counting down the days before his tour of duty in Iraq is over.

Squadron Leader Damon Middleton, whose wife and three sons are longing for his safe return, has been deployed in the war-torn country since November.

The 39-year-old, who usually flies Hercules planes, is taking on a ground role in Iraq – acting as the chief air advisor for the British Army’s 20th Armoured Brigade.

He is stationed at the British and American Contingency Operating Base in the southern city of Basra and is due to return home in May.

“Seven months without the wife and kids is a long time,” he said.

“I’ve even been replaced at home by Gatsby the dog. It’s great to know I can be so easily replaced by a £200 chocolate brown Springador.”

It is the second time that Sqn Ldr Middleton has served in Iraq – the first being during the American and British invasion of 2003.

“I feel very proud of what we have achieved in the country since then,” he said.

“Back then, Iraq was in a very poor way, but now the local people are walking around town, going for a kebab, and they tell us that they are very happy.

“It’s great to think that when the British leave the country this summer, we will be leaving with the job done.”

Sqn Ldr Middleton, who lives in Nun Monkton, near York, has served in Afghanistan, Angola and Bosnia during his RAF career.

He trained as a pilot at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in 1990 and later returned as the deputy chief instructor, from 2002 to 2007.“What I love about being a pilot is that every day is different,” he said.

“Although you do the same job, the weather is different, the places you land are different, the challenges are different and the people you meet are different.”

He said although he was enjoying his job in Iraq, he was looking forward to getting home to his wife, Anna, and three sons, Connor, 16, Oliver, six, and Charlie, five.

“I’m ready to come home now,” he said.

“I work seven days a week, 14 to 15 hours every day, and I’m tired.

“I’m looking forward to sitting in the middle of York and having a pint by the river at the King’s Arms.”

Murder, mayhem and museums - BBC online

Caroline Wyatt - BBC News

While Iraq struggles to return to peaceful normality, the British have been working to restore some of the country's pride in its past - with a museum.

Today, the Basra Palace compound is eerily quiet. A cold winter's wind whips off the Shatt al-Arab waterway, and howls around the marbled palace, almost drowning out the cry of the sea-birds soaring over the reeds in the brackish waters.

Not so long ago, the compound reverberated to the sound of incoming rocket fire from Iraqi insurgents, the Mahdi Army Shia militia, as they fought British forces based at the palace.
British soldiers withdrew from the palace compound in September 2007. Now, the building itself is deserted, and I have to wait for an Iraqi police colonel to turn up with the key.

Built by a Basra oil baron in the 1980s, the palace was requisitioned by Saddam Hussein, although it is not clear if the late dictator ever stayed there.

I had not seen it since April 2003, when a British flag flew triumphantly over the entrance, and British troops - rejoicing in the rapid success of the invasion - explored Saddam's palaces, wide-eyed with wonder at their opulence, and the gold taps in the many bathrooms.

Water, electricity, antiquities
That was in the early days, when the people of Basra offered a warm welcome to their British "liberators". It was before the long years of violence began, and back then the palace itself had been spared the worst effects of battle.

In his mind's eye, John Curtis, keeper of the Middle East department at the British Museum, can already see the site transformed into a museum for Basra's many ancient treasures. Before I left for Basra, I met him in the British Museum's rooms full of Assyrian wall reliefs, and had just enough time to marvel at the exhibition on ancient Babylon, a place not far from today's Basra.

"The front of the palace could have a marvellous fountain and ornamental gardens," he enthuses. He was also the first western expert to see for himself and catalogue the catastrophic effects of looting, battle and ignorance on the archaeological sites of ancient Mesopotamia, now southern Iraq, following the coalition invasion in 2003.

He says he and his Iraqi counterparts at the Baghdad Department for Antiquities, which oversees Iraq's museums, hope the Basra project will come to fruition despite the difficulties that remain.

"They're enthusiastic about the project, and glad we're taking this initiative," he says. "A great deal has been done in Basra in terms of providing water and electricity. But culture is an area which has been largely neglected."

Just a few years ago, the very idea of a new museum in Basra would have been laughable. The focus was on security, and reconstructing the essentials of daily life, such as a working sewage system. Those projects are still not complete, but more than five years on, Basra is indeed a place transformed, with British forces looking to withdraw from the region altogether by the end of July.

Looting
The city is much calmer now, with Iraqi forces handling security while the British focus on training. Car bombs, kidnappings and even murders are down from their peak, even if they have not disappeared entirely. And British troops are even back in the wider Basra Palace complex again, while they mentor the Iraq Army in the city.

The origin of the idea of a new Museum for Basra based at the palace came from Maj Gen Barney White-Spunner, Britain's former commanding officer in southern Iraq, and was taken up with enthusiasm by Mr Curtis and the British Museum.

Basra's collection of antiquities have survived somewhat against the odds. The city's old museum was ransacked during the first Gulf War of 1991, and its valuable collection of vases, terracotta and stone figures, bronze weapons, jewellery and cuneiform-inscribed clay tablets, were moved to the capital, where they were locked in a vault. That's how they escaped the 2003 looting.

As I walk inside Basra's silent palace, I am accompanied by Capt Laurence Roche, of 20th Armoured Brigade, who is helping continue the liaison work. He remembers being there in 2006, and the imposing main room overlooking the Shatt al-Arab waterway, being used as a British Army cook-house, with the rooms upstairs becoming dormitories.

"It's eerie to see the palace so empty, but with all the grandeur of the rooms, and the view... it's not too much of a leap of the imagination to see this as a museum. I know we in the British Army are fascinated by our own history and the ancient history here, because this is one of the cradles of civilisation - with so many treasures. Many of us would like to return in future years and see that in its proper setting," he says.

Recovered treasures
But how do Iraqis feel about the idea? Col Ahmed Abbas Hudea, who let us into the palace, is enthusiastic.

"I would be happy if all of Saddam's palaces were turned into museums for Iraqis to enjoy," he says. "And I hope people would come to visit from across the Arab world, and from Western countries."

In December, Capt Roche had a small glimpse of the kind of treasures the museum could contain one day. He was allowed to film some 200 priceless ancient artefacts, the fruits of a raid by Iraqi security forces on a gang of smugglers who had buried their horde in a Basra back garden. They were destined for private buyers abroad. Capt Roche says it was an Aladdin's cave.

"There were statuettes, just five or six inches high, representing Babylonian kings and Sumerian warriors and princesses. And there was a lamasu - the winged ox that was the symbol of Assyrian strength, and silverware and jewellery. And they had found Babylonian gold, absolutely priceless. It was a spectacular haul."

It is not clear if those artefacts will go into the museum. They are currently being examined by experts in Baghdad, who say Basra is an extraordinary city, with deep-rooted heritage, which deserves a new site for its treasures.

However, they say that their mutual efforts with their British colleagues have been delayed by the need to seek official Iraqi cabinet approval, although they vow to continue to "aspire" to the idea.

So, if the ambitious plans work out, people in southern Iraq should one day be able to enjoy a splendid new setting for their ancient heritage, in a building that symbolises so much of Basra's more recent turbulent history.

Until that day comes, it is still easier for visitors to enjoy many of Iraq's ancient treasures in the British Museum - not least because Basra and Baghdad are not quite back on the tourist trail just yet.

Click here for the article on BBC Online