Ex foreign secretary savages Blair's 'reckless military adventures'
Iraq-UK, Politics, 4/22/2006

Former British Foreign Secretary Sir Michael Rifkind yesterday savaged Prime Minister Tony Blair's "reckless military adventures" and his great reliance on troops for implementing his pro-active policies.

"Firstly, it is foolish to expand your foreign policy and have greater call on your soldiers when you are simultaneously reducing their number," Rifkind warned.

"One of the consequences has been a far greater reliance on the TA (Territorial Army) and other Reservists than at any period in our peacetime history," he said.

In an article for the parliamentary House magazine, the former Conservative Foreign Secretary accused the government of "trying to get professional soldiers on the cheap and is doing great damage to the Reserves and their ability to recruit." "My second criticism is the prime minister's enthusiasm for pre-emptive wars. While he is careful not to use the same language as President Bush reaches the same conclusions," he said.

The veteran Scottish MP, who also served as Defence Secretary, said that the result has been "the Iraqi disaster; the worst foreign policy mistake for the United Kingdom since Suez," when Britain in 1956 unsuccessfully invaded Egypt without US support.

"Pre-emptive wars can, in exceptional circumstances, be justified. But Iraq did not fit into that category. There were no WMD, Iraq's neighbors did not feel threatened by Saddam at the time of the war, and the UN Security Council refused its endorsement," he said.

With regard to the prime minister's legacy, Rifkind was that it was "inevitable" that the Iraq war will "always be the albatross around Tony Blair's neck."

Previous Stories:
  100,000 march in London against Blair's war   (3/20/2006)
  UK to reduce forces in Iraq in May   (3/14/2006)
  British soldier resigns in protest at 'illegal' Iraq war   (3/13/2006)

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