Former British commanders accuse Brown of misleading Iraq war inquiry
March 6th, 2010 - 3:36 pm ICT by ANI
London, Mar. 6 (ANI): Former British commanders have accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of misleading the Iraq war inquiry by saying that his government had provided sufficient equipment to the Armed Forces for the invasion, and it was the military that failed to equip troops properly.
Admiral Lord Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff up to the start of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, said that Brown was being disingenuous during his interview before the Chilcot inquiry.
“He’s dissembling, he’s being disingenuous. It’s just not the case that the Ministry of Defence was given everything it needed. There may have been a 1.5 per cent increase in the defence budget but the MoD was starved of funds,” The Times quoted Lord Boyce, as saying.
On Friday, while Brown admitted to curbing spending while troops were fighting in Iraq, he insisted this had not affected soldiers on the front line.
Brown, who was Chancellor at that time - shifted the blame on to generals when confronted with complaints from the relatives of soldiers killed by in attacks on Snatch Land Rovers.
However, Colonel Stuart Tootal, former commander of 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, said: “I am quite staggered by the lack of any sense of responsibility. He was the man with the purse strings.”
During the inquiry, Brown repeatedly expressed sorrow for the British and Iraqi deaths.
“I think this is the gravest decision to go to war. It was the right decision and it was for the right reasons,” he said. (ANI)
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