UK general calls for Iraq withdrawal

General Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the British Army, has gone on the record in an interview with the Daily Mail.

He says clearly we should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems." "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 in a country, but we weren't invited certainly 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 and has largely turned to intolerance."

This will be disastrous for Blair's last days. It's also an unprecedented breach of protocol that's bordering on mutinous - serving soldiers do not usually set policy, or comment on it. While the Daily Mail, which tends towards a rather rabidly British kind of wingnuttery, is clearly using this story for political capital that will play well with its readers, that doesn't change the fact that the story is still true. So - another big development in the Iraq saga that will make some waves on both sides of the pond, and could possibly even affect the mid-terms.

•  this should lead the US news tonight -

   but of course, it won't  - God forbid Americans hear the truth -

  by mldostert on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 02:51:01 PM PDT

  •  Agreed. But if Steven Colbert were to "denounce"

    the general, word might get out.

    Wouldn't a regime change in the United Kingdom be a nice October suprise?

    Perhaps it's time for the Old World to come to the aid of the New.

    by jpk on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 03:51:54 PM PDT

•  This is one of four diaries

  in a row on this subject.

  Please delete it.

  by lemming22 on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 02:52:21 PM PDT