Iraq mistakes 'repeated in Afghanistan'
Charles Kennedy: Only party leader to oppose Iraq war
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Sunday, 20, Sep 2009 04:54
By Matthew Champion.
British and Nato disregard for civilian lives in Afghanistan has worrying overtones of the conflict in Iraq, former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has told inthenews.co.uk.
Speaking at a fringe meeting at his party's conference in Bournemouth he said there was a danger the "terrible, terribly legacy" of civilian deaths in Iraq was being repeated in Afghanistan.
Last week Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and party grandee Paddy Ashdown published a new strategy for Afghanistan in which UK troops withdraw from the most hotly-contested areas, which would suffer a more aggressive policy of bombings and air-strikes.
The policy appeared contentious given the massive recruitment boost given to the Taliban for air-strikes targeting militants that come with a high civilian death-toll.
Mr Kennedy, speaking at a fringe event stressing the importance of a distinctive foreign policy for the Lib Dems, distanced himself from the Clegg/Ashdown strategy, which he wrongly assumed would come up in a Q&A session with the Lib Dem leader later that day.
But he agreed with the criticism of the indiscriminate nature of alliance air power.
"We've seen terrible examples of what that can do," he told inthenews.co.uk, explaining that a legacy of 'collateral damage' in Iraq would "live with us and our children for generations to come, and when all of us in this room have passed away it will still be fuelling bitterness in Iraq".
"To go in as a supposed liberating force and... not to do a body count, not to do a name count, is appalling," he said.
"Think about all the villages and communities involved; suppose it happened here, there would be remembrance day parades remembering those people for decades, centuries to come. How can they do such a thing, not even count the number of people killed, far less record their names? That's a terrible indictment; let's not make the same mistake in Afghanistan for God's sake."
Mr Kennedy added that he thought the Afghanistan war would be an issue at the next general election and that the issues surrounding the conflict were "getting through to people".
None of the major parties propose a withdrawal from the country, preferring to call for a reshaping of strategy and better supplies for UK troops.
In 2005 it was opposition to the Iraq war that won the Lib Dems under Mr Kennedy their highest-ever number of MPs; 62.
Mr Kennedy reminded delegates that, contrary to the beliefs of Muslims who approach him and shake his hand for opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Lib Dems were firm exponents of invading the latter.
"We were in fact among those who didn't think the invasion came soon enough, while the Iraq war proved a distraction for the Afghanistan theatre," he explained.