'Iraq fanaticism underestimated'

The Telegraph Group Limited

London: Geoff Hoon, Britain's former Defence Secretary, has admitted that Tony Blair and his ministers underestimated the level of fanaticism in Iraq when they declared war on Saddam Hussain.
Hoon, who headed the Ministry of Defence throughout the conflict, said the result was that Britain and the US were unprepared for the violence perpetrated ever since by extremists bent on preventing democracy taking hold.

His comments, on the eve of Labour's annual conference in Brighton, added to a growing sense across the political divide, even among supporters of the invasion, that the current allied strategy in Iraq needs to be reassessed urgently.

On Friday Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, said the US-led coalition's policy "doesn't seem to be working."

He demanded that the interim government in Baghdad be told to do more to bring rebel militias to heel.

In his most candid remarks on post-conflict Iraq, Hoon, now Leader of the Commons, told the Labour conference edition of the parliamentary House magazine that he still believed it was right to have gone to war, but "In Iraq I recognise that we did not anticipate the full extent of the fanaticism, the violence and the terror used by those who oppose a free Iraq ...

"In truth, we had not prepared enough for the fanaticism of those who were prepared to attack oil pipelines, water supplies and attack their own people in order to pursue their extreme and fanatical views."

Howard, who supported the decision to go to war, told Radio 4's Today Programme that Britain and the US needed to carry out a "serious reappraisal" of their approach.

Opinion
Serious reappraisal needed urgently

Lord Bramall, a former chief of the defence staff said: "What is needed is a very serious reappraisal of what the forces are doing there, whether they can do the job that has to be done, whether they will need reinforcement or whether we have got to have a clear exit strategy, and a clear idea of when we are going to get out, sooner rather than later."

He said that withdrawing troops might be easier for the next prime minister than it would be for Tony Blair at this time.


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