Jihadi Du Jour: British General Sir Richard Dannatt Speaks Out

The last couple of days I've been hearing on the news about a British General who has spoken out against the War on Terrorism in Iraq.

What I've been hearing on the television news is that this general has said that the British Soldiers in Iraq are making the situation in Iraq worse and that Britain should pull out of Iraq immediately. I heard on the television news that what he has said flies in the face of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's face.

Then today, I heard that he had retracted his statements. I heard one newsman say that 'someone must have gotten to him'. I've heard that he is backpedaling and trying to do damage control.

I thought that it would be highly unusual for a general to make these kinds of statements and then be immediately intimidated into 'backpedaling'. By the time someone has made the rank of general, they know how the game is played both on the battlefield and in politics. Someone in that position would certainly know that making those kinds of statements publicly would be controversial. Unless he is a complete idiot, I would think he would know that he would be up against a fire storm for making the statements.

I looked up what General Sir Dannatt actually said and was not all that surprised to see that what he said, in context with the rest of what he said, was not very much the way the sound bites on television made it sound.

From the Daily Mail

In unprecedented comments he warned that the Army could 'break' if British soldiers are kept too long in Iraq.

"I want an Army in five years time and 10 years time. Don't let's break it on this one. Let's keep an eye on time," he said.

I've been very concerned that our Soldiers are being asked to return for 2 and 3 tours of duty in a war zone. They are rotating in one year and out one year. In Vietnam the guys did one year tours of duty and had done their time in serving the country.

I'm in full favor of instituting the draft. My son tells me I'm wrong about that. He says he doesn't want to have to train and fight next to people who are forced to be there. I understand what he is saying, but at the same time I'm hearing that the Army met it's recruitment goals this year by raising the age limits and lowering the testing requirements. So the Soldiers may not be drafted, but they are possibly older and unable to pass basic standards for entering the military. This is of even more concern to me as all of the Soldiers serve on the front line in this war.

Here's another bit:

... that a "moral and spiritual vacuum" has opened up in British society, which is allowing Muslim extremists to undermine "our accepted way of life."

The Chief of the General Staff believes that Christian values are under threat in Britain and that continuing to fight in Iraq will only make the situation worse.

His views have sent shockwaves through Government.

They are a total repudiation of the Prime Minister, who has repeatedly insisted that British presence in Iraq is morally right and has had no effect on our domestic security.

The General says that Christian values are under threat in Britain and the Prime Minister says that the British presence in Iraq is morally right. Those things are not mutually exclusive. The way it's being presented is that the General has spoken out against the Prime Minister. The only difference is that the General feels that British presence in Iraq exacerbates muslim anger in Britain while the Prime Minister is maintaining that one has nothing to do with the other.

I tend to think the General is right about that. I imagine the muslims will use whatever excuse they have to express their outrage. Palestine .... enough said.

Sir Richard says "whatever consent we may have had in the first place" from the Iraqi people "has largely turned to intolerance." You see, as Westerners we are not welcome in muslim countries unless we are invited. He maintains that once we had toppled Saddam our invite expired and the muslims are getting outraged by our presence on muslim land.

Remember the Tsunami? We sent the Marines there to help. The muslims allowed our Marines there only on the condition they were on their ship at night and there were no Western Marines on their soil after dark. And the Marines were there giving them life saving assistance.

Sir Richard is outraged about a few things:

He was "outraged" by reports of injured soldiers recouperating in hospital alongside civilians being confronted by anti-war campaigners who told them to remove their uniforms.

He's right. That's outrageous. Neither British nor American Soldiers should be subjected to that kind of treatment. It is completely unacceptable and both Blair and Bush should step forward and stop it. Period.

He gave Defence Secretary Des Browne a dressing down about the "unaccepatble" treatment of injured soldiers, warning him that the government was in danger of breaking the "covenant" between a nation and its Army and should not "let the Army down."

Defence Secretary Browne deserved a dressing down for this. The government, theirs or ours, should NOT BREAK OUR COVENANT WITH OUR ARMED SERVICES. We DO have a covenant. We OWE them proper treatment. Without them we could not exist.

When Sir Richard speaks of the affect of the British Soldiers in Iraq he is speaking of the muslim view of having Westerners in their country.

"We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear."

As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren’t invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time.

He does not seem to be concerned for the muslims sake, but for the sake of Britain.

Sir Richard warned that the consequences will be felt at home, where failure to support Christian values is allowing a predatory Islamist vision to take hold.

He said: "When I see the Islamist threat in this country I hope it doesn’t make undue progress because there is a moral and spiritual vacuum in this country."

"Our society has always been embedded in Christian values; once you have pulled the anchor up there is a danger that our society moves with the prevailing wind."

"There is an element of the moral compass spinning. I think it is up to society to realise that is the situation we are in."

"We can’t wish the Islamist challenge to our society away and I believe that the army both in Iraq and Afghanistan and probably wherever we go next, is fighting the foreign dimension of the challenge to our accepted way of life."

"We need to face up to the Islamist threat, to those who act in the name of Islam and in a perverted way try to impose Islam by force on societies that do not wish it."

"It is said that we live in a post Christian society. I think that is a great shame. The broader Judaic-Christian tradition has underpinned British society. It underpins the British army."

The muslims do not want Western men and women on their soil, but attempt to force islam on other societies. We see it happening all over the world.

The problem that is being exacerbated is not so much the muslim outrage as the split in our own societies, both Britain and the United States. The split allows a foothold for the predatory islamic vision that Sir Richard is talking about. That is where the problem lies.

His other point, about the treatment of our Soldiers, is in defense of the men under his command. I commend him for standing up for them, as he well should.

His statements have been misrepresented in the main stream media. Unfortunately, the sound bites are being used for the very thing he is speaking out against .... the division within the country. Manipulating us into defeating ourselves is the only way our enemy can win this war.

I think Sir Richard is talking about WINNING the war rather than surrendering.

The army wont let the nation down but I don’t want the nation to let the army down.
~ British General Sir Richard Dannatt

AMEN!

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Also at The Corner, It's the way you tell them., All Things Beautiful, BBC, Tony Blair says he's been saying the same thing, Thomas Barnett, and, of course, some leftist blogs are using the General's words to hammer Bush - pretty much exactly what the General is trying to warn against (among other things).

crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

Labels: Battle of Iraq, British Troops, General Sir Richard Dannatt, Iraq, Main Stream Media, Muslim Council Of Britain, Tony Blair, War On Terror