Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:05 pm Post subject: US was warned of Iraq chaos, says ex-diplomat |
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| Quote: |
US was warned of Iraq chaos, says ex-diplomat
By Andy McSmith
Published: 09 November 2006
A former diplomat has revealed that the British mission to the United Nations opposed the policy of regime change in Iraq but was ordered by London to change its position in the lead-up to war.
The disclosure was made to MPs yesterday by Carne Ross, a member of the mission who resigned in protest at the Iraq war. He told the Foreign Affairs Committee that the US government was repeatedly warned by British diplomats that Iraq would fall apart if Saddam Hussein was toppled. But from mid-2002 instructions were received to change that view to fall in with the Bush administration.
Speaking in public for the first time since he left the diplomatic service two years ago, Mr Ross also confirmed suspicions that the Prime Minister made up his mind months before the Iraq invasion in March 2003 that the war was going to happen and British troops would take part. Mr Ross said when he was serving in the embassy in Afghanistan, as early as April 2002, British officials there knew troops were being held back in readiness for the Iraq invasion.
He claimed that when official documents from the Foreign Office are made public, they will prove that the view of British officials, repeatedly conveyed to the Americans, was that overthrowing Saddam Hussein would cause chaos. |
| Quote: |
| His evidence to Lord Butler of Brockwell's inquiry into the Iraq war has been kept secret. Mr Ross told MPs that his union's lawyer had warned him that he could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act if it was published. But he said it had "been on his conscience" for two years that his evidence had been withheld from the public and he was prepared to hand it over to the committee. He also gave a description of how foreign policy is set by groups of four of five officials, looking over their shoulders at all times to work out what the Prime Minister wants. |
For full article click here
All along the neocons and Blair had been warned that this war would be a bloody stupid idea. This is just yet another article about it. So many of our young lads have died for bugger all, and so many hundreds of thousands of innocents have suffered/been maimed/been slaughtered needlessly.
What the hell has been going on in the US and the UK? Why didn't enough prominent people oppose it? I think in both countries a majority of the population (certainly in Britain) opposed the invasion, despite the corporate media goading it on. Where was the debate? What kind of democracies do we live in? We have become too complacent, and we don't have enough checks and balances in place to prevent such a looming fiasco as the Iraqi war clearly was (even at that time).
I read so many rational arguments against it - so many intelligence/experts/diplomats trying to get the message through. So many counter arguments to Bush and Blairs (often knowingly false) claims. But not in the wider mainstream press. It was mostly reported in the alternative media, or just a few mainstream outlets such as The Guardian and the BBC (which didn't do such a great job - perhaps because they were cowed by government pressure).
What are we going to do to stop this kind of crap happening again?
Last edited by Big_Bird on Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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