TONY Blair's policy on Iraq suffered a devastating blow last night when the head of the Army called for the withdrawal of British troops "soon" and claimed their presence in the country was making security problems worse.
General Sir Richard Dannatt said: "I don't say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq, but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them."
The Army chief argued we should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems".
Gen Dannatt, who only became Chief of the General Staff in August, has placed his job on the line and it will be hard to see how he can continue in it. A meeting with Des Browne, Defence Secretary, is expected today.
Ministers were said to have been taken completely by surprise by the general's remarks. Last night, the Ministry of Defence was putting a brave face on a crisis at the heart of government.
A spokesman said: "We have a clear strategy in Iraq. We are there with our international partners in support of the democratically elected government of Iraq under a clear UN mandate."
But shockwaves reverberated around Westminster.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, claimed government policy on Iraq was "collapsing" while Nick Harvey, the party's defence spokesman, said the general's opinion "drives a coach and horses through the government's foreign policy".
Liam Fox, Shadow Defence Secretary, described Gen Dannatt's words as the "strongest challenge" the government had faced for some time. Anti-war campaigners seized on the Army chief's views. Rose Gentle, from Glasgow, whose soldier son Gordon was killed in Iraq two years ago, said she was overjoyed to hear Sir Richard's comments.
Mr Blair has repeatedly insisted that the British presence in Iraq is morally right, that there will be no cut and run, and that it has had no effect on security at home.
However, Gen Dannatt branded a "naive" failure the PM's desire to forge a "liberal democracy" and he said that history would show the initial postwar planning was "poor".
He added: "We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear. As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited into a country, but we weren't invited, certainly not by those in Iraq at the time.
"The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in. Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance but has largely turned to intolerance."
The general said that he had "more optimism" that Britain "can get it right in Afghanistan".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article