Top UK Commander Under Fire for Urging US/UK ‘Invaders’ to Leave Iraq

May 5th, 2007 - by admin

Richard Holt / Daily Telegraph & Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent / The Telegraph – 2007-05-05 08:22:44

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/03/nrose103.xml

British Commander: Coalition Should ‘Admit Defeat and Leave Iraq’
Richard Holt / Daily Telegraph

LONDON (May 4, 2007) — A former commander of the British Army has said that Britain and America should “admit defeat” and withdraw from Iraq.

General Sir Michael Rose also said he understood why insurgents were attacking coalition forces and said he believed they were right to try and force invading troops out of the country.

Sir Michael, who led British Forces in Bosnia, has written a book comparing the insurgents’ tactics with those of George Washington’s forces in the American War of Independence.

Asked on BBC2’s Newsnight if he thought the insurgents were right to try to get the American forces out of Iraq, he said: “Yes I do.

“As Lord Chatham said, when he was speaking on the British presence in North America, he said ‘if I was an American, as I am an Englishman, as long as one Englishman remained on American native soil, I would never, never, never lay down my arms’.

“The Iraqi insurgents feel exactly the same way. I don’t excuse them for some of the terrible things they do, but I do understand why they are resisting the Americans.”

He added: “It is the soldiers who have been telling me from the front line that the war they have been fighting is a hopeless war, that they cannot possibly win it and the sooner we start talking politics and not military solutions, the sooner they will come home and their lives will be preserved.”

Asked if that meant admitting defeat, he said: “Of course we have to admit defeat.

“The British admitted defeat in North America and the catastrophes that were predicted at the time never happened. The catastrophes that were predicted after Vietnam never happened. “The same thing will occur after we leave Iraq.”

Sir Michael recently criticised the behaviour of the 15 naval personnel captured by Iranian forces in Iraqi waters. He said the sailors should not go into battle “as if they are on a Mediterranean cruise”.

Last year Sir Michael called for Tony Blair to be impeached over the war in Iraq. He accused the Prime Minister of misleading Parliament and the public about his motives for going to war, saying that although the emphasis was on removing the threat of weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair “probably had some other strategy in mind”.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/04/narmy04.xml
‘Invaders’ Must Leave Iraq, Says SAS General
Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent / The Telegraph

(May 5, 2007) — A former commander of the SAS has been accused of endangering the lives of British troops by agreeing that Iraqis should resist the “invaders” of their country.

General Sir Michael Rose has been accused of endangering British troops by agreeing that Iraqis should resist their ‘invaders.’ Gen Sir Michael Rose said it was time to ‘admit defeat’ in Iraq

Gen Sir Michael Rose also said it was time for America and Britain to “admit defeat” in Iraq and to bring the troops home to avoid further casualties.

In a debate on BBC 2’s Newsnight, the officer, who commanded the international force in Bosnia, was asked if he thought the insurgents were “right” to remove American forces from Iraq. He said: “Yes I do”. The general compared the Iraqi insurgency to that of George Washington’s forces in the American War of Independence.

Sir Michael has written a book called Washington’s War on the similarities between the two conflicts.

He said: “As Lord Chatham said, when he was speaking on the British presence in North America, ‘If I was an American, as I am an Englishman, as long as one Englishman remained on American native soil, I would never, never, never lay down my arms’.

“The Iraqi insurgents feel exactly the same way. I understand them. I don’t excuse them for some of the terrible things they do, but I do understand why they are resisting the Americans.”

Jeremy Paxman, the interviewer, suggested that people would be “very distressed to hear a senior, distinguished British military officer arguing like that and knowing that the consequence may well be the deaths of British and American personnel”.

But Gen Rose, 67, who commanded 22 SAS Regiment during the Iranian embassy siege, said that his reply was based on what he had heard from soldiers on the front line: “That the war they have been fighting is a hopeless war, that they cannot possibly win it and the sooner we start talking politics and not military solutions, the sooner they will come home and their lives will be preserved.”

Asked if that meant admitting defeat, he said: “Of course we have to admit defeat.

“The British admitted defeat in North America and the catastrophes that were predicted at the time never happened. The catastrophes that were predicted after Vietnam never happened. “The same thing will occur after we leave Iraq.”

He added that the Americans and British did not understand the “culture or nature of the people we are up against” and said they had come to be looked upon as invaders.

Gen Rose, one of Britain’s most decorated soldiers, came to public attention last year when he called for the Prime Minister to be impeached for taking Britain to war in Iraq under false pretences.

“To go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

© Telegraph Media Group Limited

Posted in accordance with Title 17, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.