Political developments in Iraq war

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Sunday April 11, 2004 20:39 by David C.

A summary of the major political developments reported Sunday...

US PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR WAR IN FREE_FALL. Just 50% of Americans now support keeping troops in Iraq until a stable government is formed, according to a Pew Research poll released on Friday. (down from 63% in January). Also, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday found 49 percent of Americans said military action in Iraq increased the threat of terrorism around the world, while just *28 percent* said it has decreased the threat.

UNIT OF NEW IRAQI ARMY REFUSES TO FIGHT IN FALLUJAH. The 620-man 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces refused to fight Monday after members of the unit were shot at in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad while en route to Fallujah, said The Post, quoting US Army Major General Paul Eaton. The convoy then turned around and returned to the battalion's base in Taji, north of the Iraqi capital. "We did not sign up to fight Iraqis" said the unit's commander.

US TACTICS CONDEMED BY BRITISH OFFICERS. Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent at the Telegraph, writes today that senior British commanders have condemned American military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and disproportionate. One senior Army officer told The Telegraph that America's aggressive methods were causing friction among allied commanders and that there was a growing sense of "unease and frustration" among the British high command. Speaking from his base in southern Iraq, the officer said: "My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic, it's awful.

OUTGOING SPAINISH PRIME MINISTER CRITICES RUMSFELD. President Bush has been told to muzzle Donald Rumsfeld. José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, delivered the message while staying at Mr Bush’s Texas ranch last weekend. “We need a lot more Powell and not much of Rumsfeld,” said Señor Aznar.

FORMER BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARIES CRITICISE WAR. Former British foreign secretaries Douglas Hurd and Robin Cook sharply criticised Washington's policy in Iraq, saying the United States was guilty of "overkill" and could not impose democracy in the war-shattered country through the use of force. "You really don't win hearts and minds by filling hospitals and mortuaries," said Hurd, foreign secretary between 1989 and 1995 in the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Cook, who resigned from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government last March over the decision to take Britain to war, said the US was guilty of "ham-fisted overkill" by attacking Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq."If the White House had wanted to help the terrorists find more recruits and funds they could not have hit upon a better way to do it," he said, writing in the Sunday Mirror tabloid.

PRESIDENT CARTER CRITICES WAR. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday called the Bush administration's decision to wage war against Iraq "ill-advised and unnecessary," adding the resulting campaign "has turned out to be a tragedy."