[Mb-civic] Col. Tim Collins (Retd.) on 'Cynical Iraq War'
Cheeseburger
maxfury at granderiver.net
Fri Sep 17 19:02:02 PDT 2004
Re: Col. Tim Collins (Retd.) on 'Cynical Iraq War'
Again, with all due respect to everyone and their parakeet, ATTACHMENTS do
not work on the MB Civic List. ATTACHMENTS are SCRUBBED, DELETED, or put
into the below form. Of the 99 percent of the ATTACHMENTS which I can NOT
read at all when posted to the MB Civic List instead of PLAIN TEXT
NON-ATTACHMENTS, such as jpg, obj, etc, sometimes I can click and read HTML
ATTACHMENTS in the place they have been SCRUBBED to.
This is what ATTACHMENTS look like to me on my Internet Browser Screen the
10 percent of the time that I can view them. I felt someone else should
see this, as I'm probably not the only one who can NOT read ATTACHMENTS to
posts here which are SCRUBBED, and maybe people can be softly reminded that
ATTACHMENTS do NOT work for all of us when sent here. Thank you and have a
lovely weekend:
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<P class=greylabel>Across the site</P>
<P class=padless><SPAN class=red>Iraq</SPAN></P><!-- indy:relatedLinkBox -->
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who rallied UK troops condemns 'cynical' Iraq war</A> </P>
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<H1 class=head1>Officer who rallied UK troops condemns 'cynical' Iraq war</H1>
<H3 class=head3>By Kim Sengupta</H3>
<P class=padnone>17 September 2004
<P><!-- Indy:Include story# 562600 -->
<P>Colonel Tim Collins, the British commander whose stirring speech to his
troops on the eve of the Iraq invasion was reportedly hung on a wall in the
Oval Office by George Bush, has criticised the British and US governments
over the war.</P>
<P>The officer, who has now left the Army, condemned the lack of planning
for the aftermath of the conflict and questioned the motives for attacking
Iraq. He said abuses against Iraqi civilians were partly the result of
"leaders of a country, leaders of an alliance" constantly referring to them
as the "enemy ... rather than treating them as people". This attitude was
inevitably adopted by some soldiers on the ground, he said.</P>
<P>"Either it was a war to liberate the people of Iraq, in which case there
was gross incompetence, or it was simply a cynical war that was going to
happen anyway to vent some form of anger on Saddam Hussein's regime with no
regard to the consequences on the Iraqi people. In that case it is a form
of common assault - and the evidence would point towards the latter," he
said on BBC Radio 4's <I>Today</I> programme.</P>
<P>The speech of the commander of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish
Regiment was seized on by advocates of the war. Col Collins faced
allegations of misconduct during the campaign, but was cleared by an
inquiry, and subsequently was appointedOBE.</P>
<P>Yesterday Col Collins said that "the whole international community is
dismayed by the result of the Iraq war" but he felt that liberating Iraq
was still "the right thing to do. There is no doubt that the country needed
to be liberated. Whether it could have been done in a different way must be
judged by history."</P>
<P>He added: "The evidence would show, in hindsight, that the preparations
for a free and fair Iraq were not made and therefore one must question the
motivation of the powers that went to attack it. There was very little
preparation or thought given to what would follow on from the invasion.</P>
<P>"It is fair to say that the United States and its ally the UK are living
the consequence having removed the Baathist regime without any thought
about what would replace it. There's no doubt that there was a great deal
of incompetence involved but ultimately I think one has to look at the
reasons for going to war."</P>
<P>Asked about the claims of abuse of Iraqi prisoners, Col Collins said:
"The abuse of any individual is to be condemned without qualification.
However, I would observe that if the leaders of a country, or the leaders
of an alliance, talk in terms of 'them', 'the enemy' rather than treating
them as people, how can they expect the lowest common denominator, the
basic soldiery, to interpret it in any other way?</P>
<P>"Leadership comes from the top and soldiers at the lowest level will
interpret their need to act from the guidance given by leaders. They are
either well led or badly led. Ultimately the responsibility for the actions
of soldiers must come back to the leaders."</P>
<P>Col Collins was himself accused of striking an Iraqi prisoner with his
pistol, although he was later exonerated. But he said: "Inevitably my
decision to leave the Army was influenced by my disillusionment with the
extent to which the Army supported me after I was doing my best to carry
out orders as given. I don't think I was let down as much as I don't feel I
was particularly well supported." </P><!-- start of footer --></TD>
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17 September 2004 17:16</P>
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Cheeseburger
- Where has the sparrow gone now that I need its song.
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