One of the last rats to abandon the sinking, burning ship, Tony Blair is set to announce 2,600 of the British troops in Iraq are coming home, leaving just 4,100 that MoD officials say should be mostly home later this year.

Blair's government -- the few who haven't resigned, anyway -- continue to spit out rote lies like this one from current foreign secretary Margaret Beckett: "We are under way with a process of handover as the security situation on the ground improves." But it's over and everyone knows it; unlike in the United States, British military commanders who publicly call for withdrawal are not replaced with fresh sycophants.

Blair set to announce Iraq troop pull-out [Financial Times]