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1. Thoughts on Iraq

   16.Oct.06, 17:51 EDT
   
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   You may have read that the Chief of the General Staff of the UK armed forces has recently gone on record, much to our government's horror, questioning what our purpose is in Iraq, and what is the exit plan. He has also stated categorically that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our American colleagues. His question is the right one. Recent independent research has concluded that 650,000 Iraqis have been killed since the 'war' ended. The daily rate is increasing. We jointly made a huge mistake in the after-planning of the invasion. We forgot the lessons of the First and Second World Wars, the brilliance of the Marshall plan after the latter, by disbanding the Iraqi miltary and police force, turning them towards the extremists who live by destabilising democratic government. The mistake has been made. We need to withdraw with as much dignity as possible. We need to find ways to use our military forces, and political/ economic influence, in more constructive ways, and stop asking our troops to conduct impossible missions at high cost to many of them. The fight against extremism of whatever form - poltical, religious (on all sides), economic - is a necessary and difficult one. We have been suckered into fighting it on the wrong battlefield by ignorant men. Not just where bullets are flying. Guantanomo, Abu Graib, "rendition flights", for instances, are disasters for the values we should be defending above all else. We are in danger of lowering ourselves to the basest level. We have read that your newspapers have accused the Brits of 'wobbling'. Our military will not wobble. But the British people are finding it hard to justify a war without end, a political machine which lied from the start, conducts operations with a cavalier regard to human life, rides roughshod over the values which have led to our successful democracies over centuries, and arrogantly expects others to conform to our beliefs and self-serving demands. The disappointment is that there seems little choice in new political leaders. But that should not stop us working to find them. Nor should we as citizens stop demanding that those who represent us are held to the values we cherish. We took the hit on 9/11 and in London, Madrid, Mumbai, Bali, etc., not them. We will fight extremism, but we need leaders who fight it for us with our set of secular morals and values. I think it sad that Sir Richard Dannat, our CGS, had to say what he did in public, because that means that our democratic process has broken down internally. What he said was on the button, and I salute him for that. Charles