Evan Lehmann / The Lowell Sun & Andy McSmith / London Independent – 2005-10-02 11:46:08
http://www.lowellsun.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3072005
Retired General: Iraq Invasion Was ‘Strategic Disaster’
Evan Lehmann / The Lowell Sun
WASHINGTON (September 29, 2005) — The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,” a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year., Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America’s Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.
The US should withdraw from Iraq, he said, and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells.
“The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history,” said Odom, now a scholar with the Hudson Institute.
Homeward Bound, a bipartisan resolution with 60 House co-sponsors, including Lowell Rep. Marty Meehan, requests President Bush to announce plans for a draw-down by December, and begin withdrawing troops by October 2006.
The measure has not been voted on, nor has the House Republican leadership scheduled hearings. But supporters were encouraged yesterday, pointing to growing support among moderate conservatives and the public’s rising dissatisfaction with the war.
Meehan, one of the first to propose a tiered exit strategy in January, when few of his Democratic colleagues dared wade into the controversial debate, pointed to “enormous progress.”
“Talking about this issue, having hearings on this issue, getting more Americans to focus on it will result in a change of policy,” Meehan told The Sun. “The generals and commanders on the field in Iraq overwhelmingly are saying we need less in terms of occupation and more Iraqis up front, and that’s the only strategy I think that will result in getting American troops back home.”
Colonel Blames Blair over Iraq ‘Catastrophe’
Andy McSmith, Political Editor / The Independent
LONDON (October 2, 2005) — Lack of political leadership from Tony Blair is putting British troops at risk in Iraq, according to a former commander of the British invasion force. Britain could lose the war against Iraqi insurgents and risks being driven into neighbouring Iran.
Colonel Tim Collins — famed for the speech he delivered to his men in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment hours before they went into action in March 2003 — described the situation in Iraq now as “a right rollicking cock-up”.
He accused the US and Britain of having “blundered” into Iraq without an adequate plan for postwar reconstruction, and claimed that personal rivalry between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is now preventing the Government from forming a strategy for getting British troops out.
The colonel’s attack came at the end of a week during which Mr Blair’s efforts to keep Iraq out of the news misfired spectacularly. Stewards at Labour’s annual conference forcibly evicted Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year-old protester, for heckling the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.
Mr Wolfgang later received an apology from the Labour Party, a promise that he would be welcomed back to next year’s conference, and an invitation to lunch with the party chairman.
At the conference, Mr Blair acknowledged that there were “good people” who opposed the Iraq war, but insisted that: “The way to stop the innocent dying is not to retreat but to stand up for their right to decide their government in a democratic way.”
But Colonel Collins told the Morgan and Platell show last night that British policy in Iraq is “directionless” and that if it ended in a military catastrophe, the blame “would ultimately land on the Prime Minister’s desk”.
He added: “We blundered into Iraq, relying on pure military force and brute instinct to remove the regime and then step back and think that would solve it.
“We didn’t have a plan to remove the Baathist regime. We created a vacuum in which the insurgency thrived. We are now living with the consequences of that mistake. And we are compounding the mistake by not giving any direction. We could pay a price for this [with] the Army being chased over the border into Iran,” he warned.
“It’s pointless having armies deployed overseas unless there’s prudent counsel at home. There appears to be no prudent counsel. The only thing on the political agenda here in the UK seems to be the spat between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.”
Lack of political leadership from Tony Blair is putting British troops at risk in Iraq, according to a former commander of the British invasion force. Britain could lose the war against Iraqi insurgents and risks being driven into neighbouring Iran.
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