Former British Army chief attacks US failures in Iraq

London, Dec 21 (ANI): Former British Army Chief Sir Mike Jackson has accused the Americans of "appalling" decision-making during the Iraq war.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, General Sir Mike Jackson, the former chief of the general staff, said that the violence in post-war Iraq was "much exacerbated by the security vacuum created by Washington's appalling decisions" to disband the Iraqi security forces.

Sir Mike, who was head of the British Army at the time of the war, added that the US policy to "de-Baathify" Iraq doubled the time taken to reach the point where the coalition could consider a withdrawal from the country.

The general also added that Iranian backing for Shia militants, a development which led to hundreds of British casualties, further complicated the post-war environment.

The former defence chief, who said that he believed the campaign had been successful, was also critical of the US and British governments for failing to "understand fully" the complexity of the situation in Iraq and to create a proper reconstruction plan, the paper said.

The general said that the euphoria, which followed the toppling of Saddam, was short lived because of various factions inside Iraq began to use violence in pursuit of political objectives.

But he added that the coalition, which suffered from political and military infighting, achieved "tremendous successes" including a referendum on a new Iraqi constitution and the subsequent elections, the creation of a new Iraqi security force and the avoidance of outright civil war. (ANI)