Hostility between US and British military leaders in Iraq ran deep, with one describing his US counterparts as “group of Martians,” a newspaper reported yesterday, citing leaked government documents.
The top British commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, said “our ability to influence US policy in Iraq seemed to be minimal” in the first year of the conflict, documents published by the Daily Telegraph showed.
Britain’s chief of staff in Iraq described as difficult attempts to communicate with senior US military commanders, “a group of Martians” for whom “dialogue is alien,” the newspaper said.
“Despite our so-called special relationship, I reckon we were treated no differently to the Portuguese,” chief of staff Colonel JK Tanner said.
The statements were made in official interviews conducted by the British Ministry of Defence with army commanders who had just returned from Iraq during the first year of peacekeeping from May 2003 to May 2004.
Transcripts of the interviews, leaked to the newspaper, were revealed one day before an independent inquiry into Britain’s role in Iraq begins public hearings today, with the aim of learning the lessons from the conflict.
British troops ended their mission in Iraq in July.
The probe will reopen the debate over what remains a highly controversial campaign, in which 179 British troops lost their lives.
A leaded army analysis published by the newspaper on Sunday showed Britain had no effective plan for what to do after coalition forces overthrew Iraqi president Saddam Hussein following the 2003 invasion.
Yesterday’s report quoted Stewart as saying that “incredibly,” there was not even a secure communication link between his headquarters in southern Basra and the US commander in Baghdad.
A US decision to try to capture a key lieutenant of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in a British-run area “was not coordinated with us and no-one [was] told that it was going to happen,” a commander said.
“The whole system was appalling. We experienced real difficulty in dealing with American military and civilian organizations who, partly through arrogance and partly through bureaucracy, dictate that there is only one way: the American way,” Tanner said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not