Posted on 01/09/2006 9:34:40 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
LONDON (AP) - Britain's former U.N. military commander in Bosnia has said that Prime Minister Tony Blair should be impeached over his decision to go to war in Iraq.
Gen. Sir Michael Rose said Blair's claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction had turned out not to be true, adding that he would have resigned rather than take troops to war on such a flawed case.
"The politicians should be held to account, and my own view is that Blair should be impeached," Rose said in a Channel 4 documentary to be broadcast later in the week. Exerpts of his remarks were released Monday. "That would prevent politicians treating quite so carelessly the subject of taking a country into war."
In an interview Monday with British Broadcasting Corp. radio, Rose added to this, saying, "to go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from."
"The consequences of that war have been quite disastrous both for the people of Iraq and also for the west in terms of our wider interests in the war against global terror," he said in an interview.
Responding to Rose's remarks to the BBC, Blair's official spokesman said the former military commander was "entitled to his view."
However, he defended the government's record, and said Iraq had its first free and democratic elections in more than a generation.
"In terms of the reasons why we went to war, that has been investigated by four inquiries, including two select committees of the Houses of Parliament," spokesman said on condition of anonymity, in keeping with government policy. "The matter has been gone well over and in terms of the outcome - which is what matters - of course there have been difficulties, but we have in process the creation of a democratically elected government in Iraq and that speaks for itself."
Blair has faced accusations his government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to justify military action.
In 2004 a handful of lawmakers attempted without success to have Blair impeached for allegedly misleading Britain about the case for war. It was the first impeachment bid in Britain for more than 150 years.
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To think we complain about Powell and Bremer. Blair has it a thousand times worse.
Given the changes in the Britsh House of Lords, it is debatable whether Impeachmnet is still possible in the UK system.
Does he have a book out too?
LOL....He has some crass calculation in mind....doesn't know about the lastest in the Weekly Standard either....
Well then....this is a really bright British Commander!
Theoretically you can They invented it. But the changes in the system in the last 150/200 years make it as problematic as the Wager and Trial of Battle was when last Offered in 1817 (then quickly abolished in 1819)
I am not sure Britain has the impeachment process. It is probably another dumb ass media article from a dumb ass source.
---I don't think you can impeach British policians.---
That's why the sex scandal was invented.
Say what we will about his opinion...but his credentials are pretty much above reproach. General Rose used to be the commander of the SAS. In my book that's about as bad ass as it gets.
It just means he was a brilliant soldier (and he was). It says nothing about his political acumen.
This is politics - not an area where he has any particular status.
I'd certainly listen to anything he says with respect.
But I'm not going to assume he's an expert on everything, just because he was a extremely good soldier.
"Say what we will about his opinion...but his credentials are pretty much above reproach. General Rose used to be the commander of the SAS. In my book that's about as bad ass as it gets."
I don't often have anything good to say about leaders of European states, but Tony Blair has been a good ally in the WOT and deserves better. A Euro-socialist with balls.
I don't believe he would of used the word impeached as we only use that word in connection with America, not a British Prime Minister.
He may have had reservations about going to war based on faulty intelligence, and he is not the only one, many feel that way both on the right and the left in Britain.
That said, whether or not he's an expert on foreign policy & international relations is, as you correctly point out, an entirely different beast.
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