jan 10th
Impeach Blair on Iraq, says general
· PM misled public, says UN Bosnia commander
· Invasion 'a blunder of enormous significance'
Richard Norton-Taylor
Tuesday January 10, 2006
Guardian
A former general has called for impeachment proceedings against Tony Blair, accusing the prime minister of misleading parliament and the public over the invasion of Iraq.
General Sir Michael Rose, commander of UN forces in Bosnia in 1994, writes in today's Guardian: "The impeachment of Mr Blair is now something I believe must happen if we are to rekindle interest in the democratic process in this country once again". Britain was led into war on false pretences, he says. "It was a war that was to unleash untold suffering on the Iraqi people and cause grave damage to the west's prospects in the wider war against global terror."
Reflecting widespread unease among serving military chiefs over Iraq, Gen Rose says most British people had consistently opposed the decision to invade.
"These people have seen their political wishes ignored for reasons that have now proved false. Nor has there been any attempt made in parliament to call Mr Blair personally to account for what has transpired to be a blunder of enormous strategic significance," he writes.
It should not be surprising that "so many of the voters of this country have turned their backs on a democratic system which they feel has so little credibility and is so unresponsive".
The general, a former director of special forces, says MPs should investigate just how far the prime minister went to evaluate the quality of the intelligence about Iraq's weapons programme.
Military commanders were inevitably more cautious about using military force than politicians, since they understood better than most the consequences of engaging in war. Though in a democracy they had to remain subordinate to their political masters, they had a clear responsibility to point out "when political strategies are flawed or inadequately resourced".
Gen Rose tells Martin Bell, the former BBC correspondent in a programme, Iraq: The Failure of War, to be broadcast on Channel 4 on Friday, that he would "certainly" have resigned had he been in office at the time of the invasion.
That, he says, might have caused the politicians to "think twice about what they were doing".
Gen Sir Rupert Smith, who took over from Gen Rose as UN commander in Bosnia, says of Iraq in the programme: "We often actually reinforce our opponent's ability to achieve his objective because his strategy is always to get us to over-react."
General Sir Michael Walker, chief of defence staff, has said in public only that British military presence in Iraq was a "politically-charged issue" which has affected recruitment since people saw the armed forces as "guilty by association" with Mr Blair's decision to invade the country.
General Sir Mike Jackson, head of the army, has criticised US tactics in Iraq. British commanders were told by Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of defence staff at the time of the invasion, to deal with Iraqi officers and Ba'athists to help maintain law and order. That order was rescinded in May 2003 on the instructions of US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said yesterday: "General Rose is entitled to his view. Equally, the government is entitled to point out that we have had free democratic elections in Iraq for the first time in well over a generation."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
***********
it is the war that will not go away.
this year sees the allied forces being 5 years in afghanistan, and still no closer to making the place safe.
iraq looks to be a much much longer struggle to ensure security in the region and a pull-out of troops.
more and more the validity of the war itself comes under attack.
blair may have gone in for the right reasons (but this is more and more doubtful)but increasingly it looks as if the war in iraq was a folly of the bush family and the american neo-cons.
rather than bring security to the world, it has hastened the clash of civilisations.
(then again perhaps it has achieved what they wanted...)
· PM misled public, says UN Bosnia commander
· Invasion 'a blunder of enormous significance'
Richard Norton-Taylor
Tuesday January 10, 2006
Guardian
A former general has called for impeachment proceedings against Tony Blair, accusing the prime minister of misleading parliament and the public over the invasion of Iraq.
General Sir Michael Rose, commander of UN forces in Bosnia in 1994, writes in today's Guardian: "The impeachment of Mr Blair is now something I believe must happen if we are to rekindle interest in the democratic process in this country once again". Britain was led into war on false pretences, he says. "It was a war that was to unleash untold suffering on the Iraqi people and cause grave damage to the west's prospects in the wider war against global terror."
Reflecting widespread unease among serving military chiefs over Iraq, Gen Rose says most British people had consistently opposed the decision to invade.
"These people have seen their political wishes ignored for reasons that have now proved false. Nor has there been any attempt made in parliament to call Mr Blair personally to account for what has transpired to be a blunder of enormous strategic significance," he writes.
It should not be surprising that "so many of the voters of this country have turned their backs on a democratic system which they feel has so little credibility and is so unresponsive".
The general, a former director of special forces, says MPs should investigate just how far the prime minister went to evaluate the quality of the intelligence about Iraq's weapons programme.
Military commanders were inevitably more cautious about using military force than politicians, since they understood better than most the consequences of engaging in war. Though in a democracy they had to remain subordinate to their political masters, they had a clear responsibility to point out "when political strategies are flawed or inadequately resourced".
Gen Rose tells Martin Bell, the former BBC correspondent in a programme, Iraq: The Failure of War, to be broadcast on Channel 4 on Friday, that he would "certainly" have resigned had he been in office at the time of the invasion.
That, he says, might have caused the politicians to "think twice about what they were doing".
Gen Sir Rupert Smith, who took over from Gen Rose as UN commander in Bosnia, says of Iraq in the programme: "We often actually reinforce our opponent's ability to achieve his objective because his strategy is always to get us to over-react."
General Sir Michael Walker, chief of defence staff, has said in public only that British military presence in Iraq was a "politically-charged issue" which has affected recruitment since people saw the armed forces as "guilty by association" with Mr Blair's decision to invade the country.
General Sir Mike Jackson, head of the army, has criticised US tactics in Iraq. British commanders were told by Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of defence staff at the time of the invasion, to deal with Iraqi officers and Ba'athists to help maintain law and order. That order was rescinded in May 2003 on the instructions of US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said yesterday: "General Rose is entitled to his view. Equally, the government is entitled to point out that we have had free democratic elections in Iraq for the first time in well over a generation."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
***********
it is the war that will not go away.
this year sees the allied forces being 5 years in afghanistan, and still no closer to making the place safe.
iraq looks to be a much much longer struggle to ensure security in the region and a pull-out of troops.
more and more the validity of the war itself comes under attack.
blair may have gone in for the right reasons (but this is more and more doubtful)but increasingly it looks as if the war in iraq was a folly of the bush family and the american neo-cons.
rather than bring security to the world, it has hastened the clash of civilisations.
(then again perhaps it has achieved what they wanted...)
posted by pat at 10:05 AM
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