Officer who rallied UK troops condemns 'cynical' Iraq war

[emad]

The Independent
By Kim Sengupta
17 September 2004

Snip

Colonel Tim Collins, the British commander whose stirring speech to his troops on the eve of the Iraq invasion was reportedly hung on a wall in the Oval Office by George Bush, has criticised the British and US governments over the war.

The officer, who has now left the Army, condemned the lack of planning for the aftermath of the conflict and questioned the motives for attacking Iraq. He said abuses against Iraqi civilians were partly the result of "leaders of a country, leaders of an alliance" constantly referring to them as the "enemy ... rather than treating them as people". This attitude was inevitably adopted by some soldiers on the ground, he said.

"Either it was a war to liberate the people of Iraq, in which case there was gross incompetence, or it was simply a cynical war that was going to happen anyway to vent some form of anger on Saddam Hussein's regime with no regard to the consequences on the Iraqi people. In that case it is a form of common assault - and the evidence would point towards the latter," he said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The speech of the commander of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish Regiment was seized on by advocates of the war. Col Collins faced allegations of misconduct during the campaign, but was cleared by an inquiry, and subsequently was appointed OBE.Yesterday Col Collins said that "the whole international community is dismayed by the result of the Iraq war" but he felt that liberating Iraq was still "the right thing to do. There is no doubt that the country needed to be liberated. Whether it could have been done in a different way must be judged by history."
More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=562662

[mike_c]

1. this'll never see the light of day in the U.S. press

eom

[JoFerret]

2. Interesting

He was also accused of war crimes.
This from the BBC:

"There was very little preparation or thought for what would follow on after the invasion itself," he said.

"Nature abhors a vacuum and so do politics. If you knock something down you must be prepared to put something in its place or live with the consequences."

He said the evidence pointed towards the invasion being a "cynical war" inevitable to vent anger on Saddam Hussein's regime, with no regard to the consequences for Iraqis.

"In which case it's a form of common assault," he said.

....

The officer was cleared by a military investigation over alleged war crimes a year ago and won a libel case against two newspapers who reported false claims against him.