British Army Chief : I now realise I'm a European, not an American

There is a fascinating report in the Telegraph concerning the tensions between the British and American army leadership during the Iraq conflict. Now as a rule the Barnet Eye doesn't cover national and international politics, there are other bloggers who do it much better, but this is too big an issue to ignore. You see I know people who served in Iraq and lost friends out there. Some are serving in Afghanistan and if this pattern is being repeated, them British servicemen are still dying.

There is a comment from Col Tanner, who served as chief of staff to General Stewart and of the entire British division during Operation Telic 3, from November 2003 to May 2004. He says the following :-

He said: “The whole system was appalling. We experienced real difficulty in dealing with American military and civilian organisations who, partly through arrogance and partly through bureaucracy, dictate that there is only one way: the American way.
“I now realise that I am a European, not an American. We managed to get on better…with our European partners and at times with the Arabs than with the Americans. Europeans chat to each other, whereas dialogue is alien to the US military… dealing with them corporately is akin to dealing with a group of Martians.
“If it isn’t on the PowerPoint slide, then it doesn’t happen.”

They detail how the Americans attacked the Medhi Army and the whole of the British sector dissolved into violence and bloodshed. Even worse :-

Gen Stewart added: “I spent a significant amount of my time ‘consenting and evading’ US orders

So we have British generals openly saying that the execution of the war was mishandled. I'm no expert on military matters, quite the opposite, but it is crystal clear to me that if the generals are carrying on like this, guys in the field will die. Our soldiers have been put in harms way by the lack of cohesion. I don't know if 1, 10 or 100 British Servicemen died as a result of all of this. What I do know is this. The whole Iraq war was based on dishonesty and executed (at a political level) by incompetents. The price was paid in blood by ordinary soldiers. If we can't work with our allies, we shouldn't have been there at all. I suspect that when the dust settles on the situation in Afghanistan, then a similar pattern will emerge. I heard Gordon Brown say earlier in the week that the purpose of the Afghanistan campaign was "to damage Al Qaeda's morale". "What are we fighting for Lads?" - "To give Osama Bin Laden the hump". It's completely bonkers.