General Sir Mike Jackson, head of the British Army during the invasion of Iraq, has voiced a scathing attack on the U.S. post-war policy on Iraq, saying it was "intellectually bankrupt," a British newspaper reported on Saturday.
The approach taken by then U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was "intellectually bankrupt," Jackson said in his forthcoming autobiography Soldier, which will be serialized exclusively by The Daily Telegraph.
Rumsfeld was "one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq," Jackson said, who took command of the British Army one month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
It was the most outspoken criticism of U.S. policy in Iraq from a senior British officer. And Jackson's comments will highlight the deep-seated tension between London and Washington over Iraq, the report said.
The retired general also attacked U.S. anti-terror policy, saying the U.S. approach to combating global terrorism relies too heavily on military power at the expense of nation-building and diplomacy.
According to the report, Jackson also defended the record of Britain's military deployment in Basra after U.S. officials claimed that British forces had been defeated in Basra and had surrendered control of Iraq's second city to lawless militias and criminal gangs.
"I don't think that's a fair assessment at all," he said.
"What has happened in the south, as throughout the rest of Iraq, was that primary responsibility for security would be handed to the Iraqis once the Iraqi authorities and the coalition were satisfied that their state of training and development was appropriate," he said.
"In the south we had responsibility for four provinces. Three of these have been handed over in accordance with that strategy. It remains just in Basra for that to happen," he said.
Jackson also criticized U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to hand control of planning the post-invasion administration of Iraq to the Pentagon.
"All the planning carried out by the State Department went to waste," the general said.
Jackson also said that disbanding the Iraqi army and security forces after overthrowing Saddam Hussein was "very short-sighted."
"We should have kept the Iraqi security services in being and put them under the command of the coalition," he argued.
Britain is the staunchest ally of the U.S. in the invasion of Iraq. Currently, Britain has some 5,500 troops in southern Iraq. Since 2003, about 170 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
Source: Xinhua
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