Blair 'Out of his Depth' - Stirrup to Commons

Tony Blair did not appreciate what he was taking on when he planned the invasion of Iraq, the outgoing head of the armed forces, Sir Jock Stirrup says. Yes, that's his real name.
There was a "failure of strategic thinking" in southern Iraq where British soldiers were ultimately "dying for no strategic benefit".

Giving evidence to the Commons Public Administration Committee, he was asked if the politicians appreciated what they were taking on when British forces went into southern Iraq. He said: "No."
He was then asked if he believed it was an example of a failure of strategic thinking, to which he replied: "It certainly is, but it's a failure of strategic thinking much more widely. It wasn't a failure to think about strategic issues. It was getting them wrong. "If you go back to the strategic underpinning of the invasion of Iraq, the proposition was that freeing Iraq from Saddam Hussein and establishing proper democratic government would be a beacon for other countries throughout the region. Other oppressed people would see here is a model other than the extremist one that gives us hope and prospects for the future and we want some of this.
"It didn't work. It was wrong. But that was the strategy. You must draw a distinction between incorrect and failing strategy and no strategy at all."
Stirrup said British forces were there to train the Iraqi army and contain the threat on the ground., adding: "Our job was to get Iraqis to the start line in a decent state, not to run the race for them. The problem in Basra was the intra-Shia struggle for power, economic, political, criminal, and all sorts of other kinds.
"We had people sitting in locations in Basra city unable to execute an aggressive military function, but being shelled, resupply convoys on a daily basis being attacked, people dying for no strategic benefit, and no prospect of strategic benefit down this track. So what was to be done?" He said the problem in Basra was "essentially political" and that "given the right political framework" Iraqi security forces could deal with the conditions on the ground. 

Did he convey this to Blair and the other Nu£abour politicos and neoclowns at the time? No.