Ex-Minister Short Blasts Blair on Iraq 'Deceit'

[Barrett808]

Ex-Minister Short Blasts Blair on Iraq 'Deceit'
By Madeline Chambers

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British minister Clare Short accused Prime Minister Tony Blair Thursday of making political mistakes over Iraq and failing to prepare for the aftermath of war.

Her remarks, the latest in a series of attacks on her former boss, came as Blair prepares a key speech on security and war in the Gulf.

Short, Britain's former international development secretary, caused a storm last week by saying Britain spied on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ahead of the war and has accused Blair of misleading Britons about the need for military action.

She returned to the fray in Catholic journal The Tablet on Thursday. "The deceit on the road to war and the deliberate marginalization of the U.N. led to an unforgivable failure to prepare for the aftermath of the inevitable speedy victory," said Short, who resigned from government after the war.

"The significant mistakes in Iraq were political -- not intelligence mistakes," she wrote, arguing the U.S. set a date for war with which Britain went along.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040304/wl_nm/iraq_britain_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480

[stepnw1f]

1. Wooohooo

Bush will need every cent he has.

[Sinistrous]

2. It appears that Ms. Short was not cowed

by the recent threats from the Labor party machine.

Good for her.

[MasonJar]

3. Now I know why Clare is one of my favorite names.

[JoFerret]

4. The ten minute hate from Martin Rowson

[JoFerret]

5. Blair gets it Steve Bell style