Following the recent revelations of former SAS officer Peter Tinley over the immorality of the Iraq war, he added more on last night’s ABC TV’s Lateline:
TONY JONES: The PM is as you’ve heard quite emphatic about the consequences of pulling out. He says it would be a coalition defeat, it would be a victory for the terrorists, it would cause immense instability in the Middle East. What do you say to those arguments?
MAJOR PETER TINLEY: I was always taught that if you make a mistake, you make amends. The reasons for going to war were wrong. It was morally bankrupt, the whole notion of us being there, so the pretext is wrong. If that’s the case, then we need to take good, hard, courageous decisions now to get out and get out whilst we can. This war will drag us in further and further. It’s a civil war and the power vacuum that was created as a result of this invasion is clearly at the feet of this Government.
The Australian government’s Iraq policy is completely dependent on Washington (and now Britain says it may keep troops in the country until 2016, hopefully at a time when Tony Blair has already faced charges of war crimes.)
There is little sweeter than watching the slowing disintegrating Bush administration virtually begging for Iranian and Syrian assistance to handle the “new phase” in Iraq.
Marvel at the lessening of US influence in the Middle East.