Blair 'should be impeached'

2006-01-09 12:42

London - The former United Nations military commander in Bosnia said on Monday that Prime Minister Tony Blair should be impeached over his decision to go to war in Iraq.

General Sir Michael Rose told British Broadcasting Corp radio that "to go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from".

Rose said Blair's claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction had turned out not to be true, and argued that "the consequences of that war have been quite disastrous both for the people of Iraq and also for the west in terms of our wider interests in the war against global terror".

He said he would not have been prepared to lead soldiers into war on such a flawed case.

"You cannot put people in harm's way if you don't believe the cause is right or sufficient," the general said.

Blair has faced accusations his government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to justify military action.

In 2004 a handful of lawmakers attempted without success to have Blair impeached for allegedly misleading Britain about the case for war.

It was the first impeachment bid in Britain for more than 150 years.

- AP