UK Archbishop: Iraq war 'flawed'
Iraq-UK, Politics, 12/30/2006

UK Archbishop-Iraq Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan William Friday criticized two main planks of Prime Minister Tony Blair's policy in the Iraq war and renewing Britain's nuclear weapons as a deterrent.

Repeating previous criticism that the decision to invade Iraq was "flawed," the head of the Anglican Church also suggested that he may yet regret not doing more to prevent the war as a religious leader.

"I can't easily balance for myself the pros and cons of thinking about putting yourself at the head of a popular movement and resisting" the war, he said.

Prior to the Iraq war in March 2003, the Church of England spiritual leader said that he had "grave reservations" about the invasion.

"I said what I believed I needed to say. I shall need to think quite a long time about whether I could have said more, or less for that matter," he said in his latest comments on BBC radio.

The Archbishop also attacked the political mistakes of going to war, warning that the government had "put our own troops increasingly at risk in ways that I find deeply disturbing." "I am wholly prepared to believe that those who made the decisions made them in good faith - but I think those decisions were flawed," he said.

While visiting the Middle East last week, he also accused the UK government of placing Christians at risk through its actions in Iraq, which he described as "short-sightedness" and based on "ignorance." The Anglican leader also went further in his criticism of the government to renew its Trident nuclear missiles, saying that even a nuclear deterrent was "normally unacceptable." "You imagine what would be involved in the mass slaughter of the innocent, you plan for the mass slaughter of the innocent, I think there are moral problems" with the threat of using nuclear weapons," he said.

"I really do. I think it does something to your imagination to go down that route and thinking of it," the Archbishop said.

Previous Stories:
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  UK knew Iraq was not threat before invading it   (12/16/2006)
  David Cameron : Iraq deteriorating security situation casts dark shadow   (12/2/2006)

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