From The Guardian UK
By Daniel Davies

When the Americans left Vietnam, they did so in such a disorganised fashion that many CIA stations failed to destroy their confidential files. Thousands of Vietnamese were killed or put into labour camps as a result; this was described by CIA analyst Frank Snepp as “one of the most shameful things the CIA had ever done”.

The British withdrawal from Basra is being planned in a much more orderly manner, so we can be reasonably confident that the files will be destroyed. However, we will still be leaving behind a significant number of Iraqis – intelligence sources, local staff, political allies – who will be placed at significant personal risk by the British pullout, and to whom we owe something approaching a debt of honour.

Even the prime minister, in his speech announcing the pullout, agreed that Basra is not a safe place, and it is not likely to have become safe by the time the British troops hand it over. The reporting of Steven Vincent, the American journalist who was killed there in 2005, suggests that Basra has become a gangster town, ruled by rival Shia militias, who all together hate the British troops.

It is therefore very likely that the departure of the troops will be taken as an opportunity to settle old scores, and that Iraqis who have worked closely with the British are particularly vulnerable to being targeted.

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