Nick Clegg: crying wolf in 2003 destroyed all trust in Britain's leaders

[go west young man]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/6645912/Nick-Clegg-crying-wolf-in-2003-destroyed-all-trust-in-Britains-leaders.html

The price of delay in Afghanistan has been huge. We now need a complete change of strategy, which we still hope President Obama will announce next week. But even then, the chances of success are limited because the country has fallen so far. Just imagine how different it would be if the police and military training and economic aid we are delivering was going into a stable society with a government people could trust. Just imagine how many fewer of our brave soldiers would have died.

And even if the war was still difficult, even if lives were still being lost in Afghanistan, imagine how much easier it would be to persuade the British people of the importance of securing peace in this distant land if they hadn’t learnt from the Iraq fiasco that they could not trust their government on matters of national security. Why should they believe the government that “cried wolf” over Iraq?

The Iraq war inquiry offers the chance for us to examine again, and come to terms with, the fact that the people of Britain were deceived by our government. No event in recent history has done more to destroy public confidence in the government, in its justifications for war or in its ability to assess threats to Britain’s safety. The Iraq inquiry should close the book on the mistakes of that war.

[Kolesar]

1. Iraq wasn't the first time the Queen's army was sent on a war of economic conquest

To their credit, Britain has been a positive example for the past decades. After WW2, they dumped militarist Winston Churchill and didn't laud Bomber Harris with medals.

In my country, our "bomber Harris", Curtis Lemay got to run for Vice-President on the racist party ticket.