Short slams Blair over “mishandling” of Iraq
Former international development secretary Clare Short will say Sunday that the recent terrorist attacks in Istanbul and Saudi Arabia were directly influenced by the “mishandling of Iraq.”
Ms Short, who resigned this year because of the US and UK’s unilateral decision to wage war on Baghdad, said the suicide bomb blasts in Turkey, which killed 27 and left hundreds injured, were a direct continuation of the crisis in Iraq.
In an interview Sunday’s GMTV programme, she will accuse Prime Minister Tony Blair of obsequiously embracing US neo-conservative foreign policy “hook, line and sinker.”
She will criticise the “bad leadership” and “terrible errors” of US President George W Bush and charge Mr Blair in particular with “messianic”, “right wing” and “shallow” leadership.
She will say: “I think we’ve got an unfolding and accumulating tragedy that is dreadful for everyone in the world, that was predicted by many, many serious people before the Iraq war.
“I think that’s what’s happening, and it’s dreadful, and the risks of death and suffering and more bitterness and division are very serious for the world.”
She said the Iraq war had acted as a “recruiting sergeant” for terrorist groups worldwide.
She added: “I see this as the danger of a growing, growing disorder, violence, killing, bitterness, that will spread and grow, destabilise across the world, create more bitter division … very dangerous. A tragedy.”
Mr Bush yesterday said it was the ‘solemn responsibility’ of national leaders to protect their populations against terrorism.
He said the US and UK would not look askance at “terrorists trying to intimidate the people of the free world.”
Confirming the special relationship between the two allies, he said: “America is lucky to have a friend as strong as Tony Blair.”
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the bomb attacks in Turkey signified that everybody was now a target.
He said: “The truth is that with this kind of indiscriminate ruthless terrorism everybody is a target.”
