Det danske Fredsakademi

Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 19. september 2004 / Timeline September 19, 2004

18. September 2004, 20. September 2004

09/19/2004
Secret papers show Blair was warned of Iraq chaos
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/18/nwar18.xml
Tony Blair was warned a year before invading Iraq that a stable post- war government would be impossible without keeping large numbers of troops there for "many years", secret government papers reveal.
The documents, seen by The Telegraph, show more clearly than ever the grave reservations expressed by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, over the consequences of a second Gulf war and how prescient his Foreign Office officials were in predicting the ensuing chaos.
They told the Prime Minister that there was a risk of the Iraqi system "reverting to type" after a war, with a future government acquiring the very weapons of mass destruction that an attack would be designed to remove.
The documents further show that the Prime Minister was advised that he would have to "wrong foot" Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war, and that British officials believed that President George W Bush merely wanted to complete his father's "unfinished business" in a "grudge match" against Saddam.
But it is the warning of the likely aftermath - more than a year in advance, as Mr Blair was deciding to commit Britain to joining a US- led invasion - that is likely to cause most controversy and embarrassment in both London and Washington.

09/19/2004

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