A letter to Blair: Your Middle East policy is doomed, say diplomats

[T_i_B]

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=515676

Dear Prime Minister: We the undersigned, former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials, including some who have long experience of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States. Following the press conference in Washington at which you and President Bush restated these policies, we feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment.

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement. All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case. To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful. Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex country in the region. However much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the coalition is naive. This is the view of virtually all independent specialists on the region, both in Britain and in America. We are glad to note that you and the President have welcomed the proposals outlined by Lakhdar Brahimi. We must be ready to provide what support he requests, and to give authority to the United Nations to work with the Iraqis themselves, including those who are now actively resisting the occupation, to clear up the mess.

The military actions of the coalition forces must be guided by political objectives and by the requirements of the Iraq theatre itself, not by criteria remote from them. It is not good enough to say that the use of force is a matter for local commanders. Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Fallujah, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition. The Iraqis killed by coalition forces probably total between ten and fifteen thousand (it is a disgrace that the coalition forces themselves appear to have no estimate), and the number killed in the last month in Fallujah alone is apparently several hundred including many civilian men, women and children. Phrases such as "We mourn each loss of life. We salute them, and their families for their bravery and their sacrifice", apparently referring only to those who have died on the coalition side, are not well judged to moderate the passions these killings arouse.

We share your view that the British Government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the US on both these related issues, and in exerting real influence as a loyal ally. We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency. If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure.

[T_i_B]

1. Signed by the following diplomets

Sir Brian Barder, former high commissioner, Australia;
Paul Bergne, former diplomat;
Sir John Birch, former ambassador, Hungary;
Sir David Blatherwick, former ambassador, Ireland;
Graham Hugh Boyce, former ambassador, Egypt;
Sir Julian Bullard, former ambassador, Bonn;
Juliet Campbell, former ambassador, Luxemburg;
Sir Bryan Cartledge, former ambassador, Soviet Union;
Terence Clark, former ambassador, Iraq;
David Hugh Colvin, former ambassador, Belgium;
Francis Cornish, former ambassador, Israel;
Sir James Craig, former ambassador, Saudi Arabia;
Sir Brian Crowe: former director-general, external and defence affairs, Council of the European Union;
Basil Eastwood, former ambassador, Syria;
Sir Stephen Egerton, diplomatic service, Kuwait;
William Fullerton, former ambassador, Morocco;
Dick Fyjis-Walker, ex-chairman, Commonwealth Institute;
Marrack Goulding, former head of United Nations Peacekeeping;
John Graham, former Nato ambassador, Iraq;
Andrew Green, former ambassador, Syria;
Victor Henderson, former ambassador, Yemen;
Peter Hinchcliffe, former ambassador, Jordan;
Brian Hitch, former High Commissioner, Malta;
Sir Archie Lamb, former ambassador, Norway;
Sir David Logan, former ambassador, Turkey;
Christopher Long, former ambassador, Switzerland;
Ivor Lucas, former assistant secretary-general, Arab-British Chamber of Commerce;
Ian McCluney, former ambassador, Somalia;
Maureen MacGlashan, foreign service in Israel;
Philip McLean, former ambassador, Cuba;
Sir Christopher MacRae, former ambassador, Chad;
Oliver Miles, diplomatic service in Middle East;
Martin Morland, former ambassador, Burma;
Sir Keith Morris, former ambassador, Colombia;
Sir Richard Muir, former ambassador, Kuwait;
Sir Alan Munro, former ambassador, Saudi Arabia;
Stephen Nash, ambassador, Latvia;
Robin O'Neill, former ambassador,
Austria; Andrew Palmer, former ambassador, Vatican;
Bill Quantrill, former ambassador, Cameroon;
David Ratford, former ambassador, Norway;
Tom Richardson, former UK deputy ambassador, UN;
Andrew Stuart, former ambassador, Finland;
Michael Weir, former ambassador, Cairo;
Alan White, former ambassador, Chile;
Hugh Tunnell, former ambassador, Bahrain;
Charles Treadwell, former ambassador, UAE;
Sir Crispin Tickell, former UN Ambassador;
Derek Tonkin, former ambassador, Thailand;
David Tatham, former governor, Falkland Islands;
Harold "Hooky" Walker, former ambassador, Iraq;
Jeremy Varcoe, former ambassador, Somalia.

[Briar]

2. Interesting

The Guardian made much less of this letter, and printed its report with a comment from a New Labour loyalist that those who had signed were merely "Arabists", Foreign Office types who had gone native. Of course, being honest and upright journalists, this cannot be why, instead of printing the full list of signatories with their former postings, they selected out Sir Crispin Tickell and a former ambassador to Israel, adding six former ambassadors to Arab countries, but leaving out all the rest.

Someone at Number 10 leaning on the editor????

[Stuckinthebush]

3. Now here is a story...

Why doesn't CNN run with this? Oh, that's right, they had Ed Rendell on this morning talking about what a bad man Kerry is for comments he made in 1971 about the atrocities of the Vietnam war. I think this was around the time Bush was high.

Certainly an open letter to Blair from such high ranking officials is not as important as mud slinging from the right.

Carry on...