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British Soldiers Want to Get Out of Iraq
The Chief of the British General Staff Gen. Richard Dannatt said British troops should “get themselves” out of Iraq “sometime soon.” He thinks Britain’s presence is harmful for Iraq and exacerbates problems of London on the international arena. General Dannatt is the first top military man to call Tony Blair’s policy a mistake.
General Sir Richard Dannatt said in an outspoken interview with the Daily Mail that British troops should come home within two years, flatly contradicting the Prime Minister’s policy that the military will stay “as long as it takes”. General Dannatt warned that the presence of British troops “exacerbates the security problems” in Iraq and added that a “moral and spiritual vacuum” has opened up in British society, allowing Muslim extremists to undermine “our accepted way of life.”
He called Tony Blair’s desire to forge a “liberal democracy” in Iraq a “naïve” failure.
The 56-year-old Dannett notes that the Iraqis gave some support for the Brits at the start of the campaign, but none of it is left now. “We are in a Muslim country and Muslims’ views of foreigners in their country are quite clear,” the general said. “As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren’t invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time.”
Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman Michael Moore called the interview “the frankest assessment” about Iraq. “It illustrates that the government has no clear strategy,” Moore said.
The Chief of the British General Staff, however, tried to tone down the statement later, saying in an intereview with Sky News that he had never wanted to say that British troops should be pulled out of Iraq whatever it takes. “My statement was taken out of context,” he said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 14, 2006
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