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Strategy in Iraq `essentially right`, insists Blair

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, April 28, IRNA -- Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday 
responded to a barrage of criticism about his policy in occupied Iraq 
by accusing the opposition Conservative leader Michael Howard of being
disloyal and denying he had no effective plan. 
"We have a very clear political and military strategy," Blair said
during Prime Minister`s Questions in a rowdy House of Commons. The 
policy, he insisted, was `essentially correct`. 
He also rebuffed Howard for asking whether he agreed with a letter
from 52 former British ambassadors suggesting that not enough had been
done for a post-Saddam settlement. 
"I believe that we made every proper planning for what happened 
after the toppling of Saddam," the prime minister said before accusing
the Conservative leader of implicitly being disloyal to British forces
serving in Iraq. 
"I don`t in any shape or form say that he shouldn`t ask questions 
about what is happening," Blair said, but added that he thought that 
Howard and his party `actually supported us in the action in Iraq`. 
He said that he would have hoped to receive `100 percent support` 
in what he referred to as `the actions being taken to defeat these 
terrorists`. 
In answer to questions from Liberal Democrat leader Charles 
Kennedy, the prime minister denied that there had been `a specific 
request` from the US to send more troops to Iraq. He also insisted 
that `at the present time, there are sufficient troops`. 
He also defended US actions in Fulluja, where American troops have
been accused of being too aggressive in responding to the killing of 
four US civilians by killing hundreds of Iraqis. 
"The American patrol, which has been engaged in military action 
was fired upon by insurgents. It is perfectly right and proper that 
they take action against those insurgents," Blair said. Any action 
taken was agreed by the Iraq Governing Council, he insisted. 
In response to a separate question on how the British government 
would plug its hole in the budget caused by the six to seven billion 
pounds (dlrs 11 to 12 bn) spent in Iraq, the prime minister said that 
he did not recognize such figures. 
But he insisted that the benefit of success would be a `blow 
against the propaganda of extremists and fanatics trying to kill 
people` both in Iraq and in Europe. 
HC/AH/210