Head of U.K. army urges Iraq pullout

[The_Professor]

Report: Head of U.K. army urges Iraq pullout
Says British troops’ presence exacerbates situation in Iraq and elsewhere
The Associated Press


Updated: 6:27 p.m. ET Oct 12, 2006
LONDON - Britain’s new army commander said British troops in Iraq are making the situation worse and must leave the country soon and he called Prime Minister Tony Blair’s policies “naive,” according to an interview published Thursday.

Gen. Richard Dannatt said the British military should “get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems,” according to the interview with the Daily Mail released on the tabloid’s Web site.

“Whatever consent we may have had in the first place” from the Iraqi people “has largely turned to intolerance,” he said, according to the report.

The Defense Ministry and Blair’s office said they could not immediately comment.

Dannatt’s comments are certain to infuriate Blair, who is President Bush’s key ally in the Iraq war.

It is highly unusual for a sitting British military commander to publicly criticize the government’s foreign policy.

Blair’s policies called ‘naive’
Dannatt, who took over as army commander in late August, described Blair’s Iraq policies as “naive.”

“We are in a Muslim country, and Muslims’ views of foreigners in their country are quite clear,” he 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.”

Dannatt was severely critical of British and American planning for postwar Iraq, describing the rationale behind the invasion as flawed.

“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.

“The original intention was that we put in place a liberal democracy that was an exemplar for the region, was pro West and might have a beneficial effect on the balance within the Middle East.

“That was the hope, whether that was a sensible or naive hope history will judge. I don’t think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition.”

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15240385/

[Mucho]

This simply proves again that Euros are smarter than US.