After four-and-a-half years, the endgame in the Iraq War is unfolding. It is not a pretty sight. The Prime Minister's attempt to convey some sense of "mission accomplished", with his talk yesterday of political reconciliation, security and economic reconstruction, convinced nobody. Last week his crudely timed announcement of "1000 troops home for Christmas" looked like clumsy political opportunism designed to upstage the Tories in advance of a snap General Election. That impression was reinforced by the revelation that half of them had already left or never arrived. There is something particularly morally repugnant about trying to make political capital from a subject where the lives of service personnel are at stake. The mishandling of the announcement contributed to the political bruising sustained by Gordon Brown over the late cancellation of plans for an early General Election.

After four-and-a-half years, the endgame in the Iraq War is unfolding. It is not a pretty sight. The Prime Minister's attempt to convey some sense of "mission accomplished", with his talk yesterday of political reconciliation, security and economic reconstruction, convinced nobody. Last week his crudely timed announcement of "1000 troops home for Christmas" looked like clumsy political opportunism designed to upstage the Tories in advance of a snap General Election. That impression was reinforced by the revelation that half of them had already left or never arrived. There is something particularly morally repugnant about trying to make political capital from a subject where the lives of service personnel are at stake. The mishandling of the announcement contributed to the political bruising sustained by Gordon Brown over the late cancellation of plans for an early General Election.

Dithering over a poll may be costly but only politically and perhaps only temporarily. The terrible human cost of dithering over Iraq was rammed home by the opening of Mr Brown's Iraq statement yesterday: the recitation of the names and ranks of the seven British service personnel who have died there since July. Senior commanders favoured leaving the dangerously exposed Basra Palace base in April but the withdrawal was delayed, apparently as a result of political pressure from the Americans. The pull-back to Basra Airport finally took place last month. Now Mr Brown has confirmed that this garrison will be halved to around 2500 by next spring.

Despite yesterday's neat, carefully worded statement, it is impossible to disguise the impression that Britain's policy in Iraq is in a terrible mess. Withdrawals are largely driven by the need to free up troops for Afghanistan. The military top brass cannot get out of Iraq soon enough but the government is determined not to give the impression that it has decided to cut and run. That, rather than any military or security objective, is what is dictating the pace of withdrawal. The troops left there have not had a combat role since withdrawing from Basra Palace. Mr Brown talks of an "overwatch" role, though on the ground nobody is sure what they are meant to be watching. Absurdly, Mr Brown describes a second phase in the rundown as a "more limited intervention capacity". More limited than what?

His talk of British personnel handing over to a force of 35,000 trained troops and police next year is disingenuous when Iraqi army desertion rates are high and the police continues to be infiltrated by Shia militants. A British rump force of 2500 is hardly sufficient to protect its own base, let alone secure American supply routes to Baghdad or patrol the porous frontier with Iran.

At least yesterday's statement put right one particularly grievous wrong. For months it has been reported that Iraqi translators and interpreters used by British forces were being targeted as "collaborators" by death squads. Belatedly, the government has agreed to help them, though the terms remain unclear. There is talk of packages to help them settle in "a country of their choice" or "under agreed circumstances" come to the UK. It is important this offer is not drawn so tightly that many who have given valuable service and taken risks are excluded. British consulates and embassies must be geared up quickly to handle applications from this particularly deserving group of asylum seekers.