Army chief defends Iraq comments
By Paula White,WNS UK Senior Correspondent
LONDON - The chief of the British Army has called for a pullout of British troops from Iraq "sometime soon" and said that post-invasion planning for that war was "poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning."Gen. Richard Dannatt London's Daily Mail newspaper that he had "more optimism" that "we can get it right in Afghanistan."Dannatt said that Britain's continued presence in Iraq had made the country less secure.Britain should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates security problems," he told the newspaper in an interview published Thursday. "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."
Dannatt, who took over as the Army's chief of general staff in August, said the U.S.-led coalition's plan to establish a democracy in Iraq that would be "exemplar for the region" is unlikely to happen. "That was the hope. Whether that was a sensible or naive hope, history will judge," he said. "I don't think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition."
Dannatt's views directly contradict the position of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is a staunch supporter of the war and U.S. President George W. Bush's closest ally in the fight. Blair and Bush both insist that troops must stay in Iraq until Iraqi security forces are able to stand up on their own. But with the country edging nearer to civil war -- if not already immersed in it -- Dannatt said the strategy for implementing an Iraqi democracy was ill-prepared. "I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial, successful war-fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning," he said.Dannatt said that Britain had essentially overstayed its welcome in Iraq."The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in," he said, noting that was a far cry from being invited into the country. "Whatever consent we may have had in the first place may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance."
posted by wnsworld @ 10:50 AM
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