Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
December 28, 2006
Pg. 16
By Alan Cowell
LONDON, Dec. 27 — The commander of Britain’s 7,000 troops in southern Iraq has complained that they are operating in conditions that display “a generation of underfunding and relative neglect” by successive governments back home.
The remarks by the commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Shirreff, echoed criticism by two other high-ranking officers in recent months, breaking with a tradition of public restraint by military commanders in expressing political views.
In an interview with the BBC, General Shirreff said, “The nation needs to understand that the quality work done by these courageous men and women out here only happens and can only continue if our soldiers are properly supported back home in terms of the support for training, infrastructure, barracks, accommodation.”
“Some of these issues need solving,” he said, describing many of them as “the result of a generation of underfunding and relative neglect.”
General Shirreff did not blame a specific government and directed some of his criticism at the broader relationship between civilians and the military.
“I don’t blame any particular party or government; I think this is a general issue,” he said. “There’s a whole range of areas — it’s not just the sharp end here.” He said the “military covenant between the nation and its soldiers” was “seriously out of kilter.”
General Shirreff’s comments followed remarks in October by Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the top army commander, who said British troops, based primarily in Basra, should be withdrawn from Iraq “sometime soon” because their presence was adding to security problems.
December 28, 2006
Pg. 16
By Alan Cowell
LONDON, Dec. 27 — The commander of Britain’s 7,000 troops in southern Iraq has complained that they are operating in conditions that display “a generation of underfunding and relative neglect” by successive governments back home.
The remarks by the commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Shirreff, echoed criticism by two other high-ranking officers in recent months, breaking with a tradition of public restraint by military commanders in expressing political views.
In an interview with the BBC, General Shirreff said, “The nation needs to understand that the quality work done by these courageous men and women out here only happens and can only continue if our soldiers are properly supported back home in terms of the support for training, infrastructure, barracks, accommodation.”
“Some of these issues need solving,” he said, describing many of them as “the result of a generation of underfunding and relative neglect.”
General Shirreff did not blame a specific government and directed some of his criticism at the broader relationship between civilians and the military.
“I don’t blame any particular party or government; I think this is a general issue,” he said. “There’s a whole range of areas — it’s not just the sharp end here.” He said the “military covenant between the nation and its soldiers” was “seriously out of kilter.”
General Shirreff’s comments followed remarks in October by Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the top army commander, who said British troops, based primarily in Basra, should be withdrawn from Iraq “sometime soon” because their presence was adding to security problems.