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Letter to the Daily Telegraph, 9 January 2003
SIR-
So, the British Government is urging US to delay the
planned war on Iraq. ('Britain urges US to delay war
until autumn', By Anton La Guardia and George Jones,
Daily Telegraph, 9 January 2003, page 1)
This follows the earlier report by Anton La Guardia
that Mr Blair had been reluctant to order the
deployment of forces to the Gulf because "it is
politically difficult". ('Britain may scale back its military
assistance', By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor,
Daily Telegraph, 11 December 2002)
The reasons given by your Diplomatic Editor in
December included the "overstretch" in the Army
caused by the firemen's strike, the Treasury's
reluctance to release the money for a major
deployment and the strong opposition in the Labour
Party.
Now, it appears that a crucial factor is the lack of
evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass
destruction, which makes it unlikely that the US and
Britain will be able to 'persuade' the UN Security
Council to pass a second UN Resolution authorising
the use of force against Iraq.
The US went the UN route in the first place in part
because of pressure from the British Government.
The British Government put that pressure on
Washington in large part because of the strength of
the anti-war movement inside and outside the Labour
Party.
Less than a year ago, the Prime Minister adopted the
language of 'regime change' when visiting President
Bush in Crawford, Texas.
It appears that the combination of dissent within the
British military, the fracturing of the British political
establishment over this war, and grassroots
mobilisation by the anti-war movement has achieved
something close to a U-turn from the Blair
Government.
Milan Rai
Author, War Plan Iraq
ARROW & Voices in the Wilderness UK
Web addresses of Telegraph articles:
'Britain urges US to delay war until autumn', By Anton
La Guardia and George Jones, Daily Telegraph, 9
January 2003, page 1:
<http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2003/01/09/nirq09.xml&sSheet=/news/20
03/01/09/ixnewstop.html>
'Britain may scale back its military assistance', By
Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor, Daily Telegraph,
11 December 2002:
<http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;
$sessionid
$AT3IXSDRTKIBBQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?
xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F12%2F11%2Fnirq11.xml>
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