Blair backs army chief over troops call
Tony Blair has given his backing to general Richard Dannatt, the head of the army who called for British troops to leave Iraq “sometime soon”.
The prime minister said Sir Richard’s view “is precisely the same as we’re all saying – our strategy is to pull out of Iraq when we’re done”.
Mr Blair said British troops had already handed over control of two Iraqi provinces to domestic security forces in the south “because the job was done”, and stressed it was “important we withdraw from some areas where Iraqis are ready to take control”.
He noted Sir Richard had said the armed forces were still needed in Basra, adding: “It’s tough for British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan but we’ll see the job through and I’ve no doubt that General Dannatt is right behind it.”
The new chief of the general staff sparked a major controversy with an interview in today’s Daily Mail where he warned British troops were not welcome in many parts of Iraq and their presence was even making the security situation worse.
“Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance,” Sir Richard said.
“That is a fact. I don’t say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them.”
He told the newspaper Britain should “get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems”.
Elsewhere in the Mail interview, which comes just days after a report claimed 655,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed since military action in March 2003, he criticised reconstruction plans as “poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning”.
Sir Richard also raised questions about Mr Blair’s hopes to install a liberal democracy in Iraq, saying: “That was the hope, whether that was a sensible or naïve hope history will judge. I don’t think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition.”
The army chief said he had “more optimism” that “we can get it right in Afghanistan”.
He also criticised the treatment of injured soldiers in civilian hospitals as “not acceptable”, saying: “I said to the defence secretary the army won’t let the nation down but I don’t want the nation to let the army down.”
But speaking to the BBC this morning, Sir Richard insisted there was no conflict with the government, saying: “There isn’t even a cigarette paper between myself and Des Browne or myself and the prime minister.”
He stressed the army would “see it through to the end” in Iraq “but we can’t allow it to go on indefinitely”, adding he expected Britain to have a “residual presence for some time to come”.
Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell said: “Brick by brick government policy on Iraq is collapsing.”
He added: “Time is running out. There is a desperate need for a new strategy led not by the US, but by the UN, providing for a peace process with a reinvigorated reconstruction programme and concerted international and regional engagement.”
