Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

The following is the full text of a letter signed by over 50 former British Ambassador sent to Blair.

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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 decision by the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN to launch a "Road Map" for the settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the major powers would at last make a determined and collective effort to resolve a problem which, more than any other, has for decades poisoned relations between the West and the Islamic and Arab worlds.

... But the hopes were ill-founded. Nothing effective has been done either to move the negotiations forward or to curb the violence.

Britain and the other sponsors of the Road Map merely waited on American leadership, but waited in vain.

Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the international community has now been confronted with the announcement by Ariel Sharon and President Bush of new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood.

Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land and which have been the basis for such successes as those efforts have produced.

This abandonment of principle comes at a time when rightly or wrongly we are portrayed throughout the Arab and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and brutal occupation in Iraq.

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.

... 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 Falluja, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition.

... We share your view that the British government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the United States 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.

The signatories are: Brian Barder; Paul Bergne; John Birch; David Blatherwick; Graham Boyce; Julian Bullard; Juliet Campbell; Bryan Cartledge; Terence Clark; David Colvin; Francis Cornish; James Craig; Brian Crowe; Basil Eastwood; Stephen Egerton; William Fullerton; Dick Fyjis-Walker; Marrack Goulding; John Graham; Andrew Green; Vic Henderson; Peter Hinchcliffe; Brian Hitch; Archie Lamb; David Logan; Christopher Long; Ivor Lucas; Ian McCluney; Maureen MacGlashan; Philip McLean; Christopher MacRae; Oliver Miles; Martin Morland; Keith Morris; Richard Muir; Alan Munro; Stephen Nash; Robin O'Neill; Andrew Palmer; Bill Quantrill; David Ratford; Tom Richardson; Andrew Stuart; David Tatham; Crispin Tickell; Derek Tonkin; Charles Treadwell; Hugh Tunnell; Jeremy Varcoe; Hooky Walker; Michael Weir and Alan White.

BBC News

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15003

4B?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35658

This really won't help Blair at all. I don't remember anything like this before, not of British foreign policy. I'd pretty much agree with what they are saying, although their expertise is far greater than mine, so my judgement isn't worth much.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Just to the right of the moon
Posts: 3141

Unprecedented

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24755

In unprecedented times one finds acts of unprecedented courage in the face of unprecedented threats despite the machinations of unprecedented cowardice. There is nothing unprecedented about it.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35658

It is really unusuak that the extremely discrete and apolitical people that have signed this have felt the need to speak out in this way. Blair's autocratic and increasingly bizarre mode of government might be finally going to bite his arse. When he goes, he'll be replaced by another lefty (likely left of him, in fact), but perhaps one who isn't determined to change the way that Britain is governed just for personal aggrandisement.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24755

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
...perhaps one who isn't determined to change the way that Britain is governed just for personal aggrandisement.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: All over the place
Posts: 2803

Perhaps this also goes some way to shatter the myth that the disquiet expressed concerning the middle east and the war in Iraq is not the preserve of loony lefties, but a significant chunk of the British establishment.

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
Blair' ..... replaced by another lefty (likely left of him, in fact),

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Just to the right of the moon
Posts: 3141

quote:

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Originally posted by Trenchant_Troll
In unprecedented times one finds acts of unprecedented courage in the face of unprecedented threats despite the machinations of unprecedented cowardice. There is nothing unprecedented about it.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

Have to concur with funky there.

Still, it's understandable that for some people "terrorism" is still something new, so Trenchant Troll's inaccurate convolution is excusable on that matter.

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location:
Posts: 222

uk ambassadors any better qualified than US ones? they by and large get appointed as favors for political/financial support.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Just to the right of the moon
Posts: 3141

Depends what you mean by better qualified. All those Ambassadors will, as graduates, have had to pass a competetive examination to get into the Diplomatic Corps or the Foreign Office. The pass rate for that will be around the 1% mark. Then they have to make their way up the ladder agaisnt their fellow competitors, spending years abroad in far flung places, acting in a totally impartial manner, serving the policy needs of different governments until they reach the plum job. You can't just drag someone in to be your Ambasador to A or B under that system.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

funky is right.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35658

quote:

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Originally posted by Trenchant_Troll
Surely you aren't referring to a politician.

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