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"Why don't we just do the decent thing?"
Why don't we, indeed. I salute this British officer, who'll be forever an unsung but *real* hero of the Iraq war.
Again from today's Independent (UK):
Doctrine of 'kill, kill and kill again' angers British officers
By Kim Sengupta
19 May 2004
Senior British officers are angry and despondent at what they see as a US doctrine in Iraq of "kill, kill and kill again", and are determined that their troops should not be under direct American command, according to a report.
The simmering tension between the militaries of the two allies has been highlighted in the American magazine, Newsweek, which also describes how a British officer unsuccessfully urged his US counterparts to do the "decent thing" and free the Iraqi inmates from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
The British protest over Iraqi prisoners is said to have taken place at a staff meeting attended by American Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was subsequently suspended for failure to prevent abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib by troops under her command, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq, and a military legal team.
The British officer said: "The best solution is to find a way to release these people instead of building more and more detention facilities. Why don't we just do the decent thing?" Brig Gen Karpinski recalled that the British "effrontery" was received with incredulity by American commanders. "They looked at him like, 'who asked you?'"
The report states: "The difference in style - Do the decent thing...who asked you?- is stark. So much so, Newsweek has learnt, as to become a serious obstacle to military cooperation."
The report of discord between the US and British commanders comes at an especially critical time, with continuing turmoil in Iraq and the Government about to announce the large scale deployment of extra troops.
Senior British officers have been resisting pressure from Downing Street both on the deployment and also on placing troops outside the British controlled zone at flashpoints like Najaf.
Tony Blair's official spokesman said yesterday that the sending of extra troops would be tied to a drive towards forming an Iraqi army, and police and intelligence services. The Prime Minister is said to have won agreement on this from President George W Bush during two telephone conversations in recent weeks.
Mr Blair's spokesman said this speeding up of the political and security "twin track" was "a recognition that the key to success is to give the Iraqis what they want, which is as much control and responsibility as quickly as possible."
Major General David Petraeus, a senior US officer in Iraq, has been asked to study how British forces are training Iraqi forces in policing and counter-terrorism in the Basra region.
However, some British trained Iraqi policemen, carrying British supplied arms, joined with the militia of the Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr when they took over the governors' mansion in Basra. And a recent Amnesty International report accused the same force of being involved in the killing of prisoners.
19 May 2004 09:50
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