robinturner | Old soldiers never die, they just get a little peeved

It is a respected British tradition that retired members of the armed forces write to the Times (or failing that, their local paper) to denounce what they see as the evils of contemporary society, from vandalism to bad grammar, and to suggest solutions ranging from birching to compulsory Latin classes. Now, however, the old warhorses are focussing their ire on war itself, which isn't really cricket, old chap. Colonel Tim Collins (retd.), once famous for giving the Iraq version of the St. Crispin's Day Speech, has blamed abuses against Iraqis (one of which he was accused of himself) on a "cynical" policy by the US and UK governments. Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, he said "Either it was a war to liberate the people of Iraq, in which case there was gross incompetence, or it was simply a cynical war that was going to happen anyway to vent some form of anger on Saddam Hussein's regime with no regard to the consequences on the Iraqi people. In that case it is a form of common assault - and the evidence would point towards the latter."

If it weren't enough to have one of Her Majesty's officers spilling the beans out of the mess tin on a bastion of Communism like Today, we have Gen. William Odom (retd.), who has this to say about the Iraq war: "It was not in our interest to enter Iraq in the first place. It was, however, in the interest of Osama bin Laden for us to destroy a secular Arab leader; it was very much in the interest of the Iranians because they wanted revenge against Saddam Hussein for Iraq's invasion in 1980." We lefty bloggers may have been saying this for over a year, but it's still a little surprising to hear it from the mouth of a former general and former head of the NSA.