Archbishop says policy makers forgot ‘costs’ of war
Author: By Tony Jones and Sam Marsden, Press Association
Dr Rowan Williams, who has previously described the decisions which led to the
war as “flawed”, praised the “patient and consistent” efforts of troops on
the ground.
But he used his address at the national service of remembrance in St Paul’s
Cathedral to remind his audience that the conflict remained highly
controversial.
Among those in the congregation listening to his words was former prime
minister Tony Blair, who led the country into war.
Dr Williams said: “Many people of my generation and younger grew up doubting
whether we should ever see another straightforward international conflict,
fought by a standing army with conventional weapons.
“We had begun to forget the realities of cost. And when such conflict appeared
on the horizon, there were those among both policy makers and commentators
who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price, the cost
of justice.”
The Archbishop alluded to the controversial nature of the campaign, known as
Operation Telic, which brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the
streets in protest in the run up to the war.
He said: “The conflict in Iraq will, for a long time yet, exercise the
historians, the moralists, the international experts.
“In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person
who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right
or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be.”
Iraq veterans and bereaved families joined the Queen, Prime Minister Gordon
Brown and senior military leaders for the poignant service.
Servicemen and women injured fighting during Operation Telic, and the families
of those killed in the conflict, were also among the congregation.
Other senior royals attending included the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales,
Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and the
Princess Royal.
Also present were significant figures who played important roles in the
campaign, including former heads of the Army Sir Mike Jackson and Sir
Richard Dannatt and former defence secretary Geoff Hoon.
Dr Williams praised the efforts of the forces on the ground, who he said were
really the ones with the task of upholding Britain’s “moral credibility”.
The Archbishop said: “The demanding task of winning local trust in a chaotic,
ravaged society like post-invasion Iraq was one of the heaviest
responsibilities laid on armed personnel anywhere in recent times.
“Many here will know just how patiently and consistently that work was taken
on.
“The moral credibility of any country engaged in war depends a lot less on the
rhetoric of politicians and commentators than on the capacity of every
serving soldier to discharge these responsibilities with integrity and
intelligence.”
He added: “Reflecting on the years of the Iraq campaign, we cannot say that no
mistakes were ever made (when has that ever been the case?).
“But we can be grateful for the courage and honesty shown in facing them.”
He concluded by thanking “those who have taught us through their sacrifice the
sheer worth of justice and peace and who have shouldered some of the
responsibility for fleshing out the values most of us only talk about”.
Dr Williams has made several attacks on the Government over the Iraq war.
In December 2006 he told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I am wholly prepared to
believe that those who made the decisions made them in good faith – but I
think those decisions were flawed.
“And I think the moral and the practical flaws have emerged as time has gone
on – very painfully – and they have put our own troops increasingly at risk
in ways that I find deeply disturbing.”
The conflict claimed the lives of 179 British personnel – 178 servicemen and
women and one civilian Ministry of Defence worker.
Tracey Hazel, 43, whose son Corporal Ben Leaning, 24, of the Queen’s Royal
Lancers was killed in 2007, was one of a number of civilians asked to take
part in today’s service and lit the Operation Telic memorial candle.
Speaking about her son, who died when the Warrior vehicle he was travelling in
was blown up by a roadside bomb, she said: “At the end of the day, I wanted
to be here for Ben and all the fallen – I feel so privileged.
“It was so nice they chose one of the parents to do it, as it’s them that are
left suffering when a loved one dies.”
The 43-year-old, from Scunthorpe, was among the first group of families to be
personally awarded the Elizabeth Cross – a military honour given to the
relatives of service personnel killed in active service – by the Queen last
month.
She said: “Ben, he was a right cheeky chappy. I feel so honoured. When I sit
back and think of him, I see him with his massive smile.
“He really never let life get him down, I’m not saying he was perfect by any
means, because nobody is, but he always made something good out of a bad
situation.”
Lance Corporal Gareth Thomas, a decorated Royal Marine, was chosen to say a
prayer during the service.
The 27-year-old from Poole in Dorset served during the first few days of the
Iraq War and, along with his unit, was tasked with stopping Saddam Hussein’s
forces destroying the country’s oil infrastructure.
They succeeded and the lance corporal’s remarkable bravery running through
enemy fire to rescue colleagues earned him the Military Cross.
He said: “I feel very proud of what we’ve done. I like to think we laid the
foundations for a better Iraq. Whether that happens or not remains to be
seen.
“The service was a fitting way, I think, to remember those who did not come
back.”
Dr Williams suggested that a lesson from the build-up to the Iraq war was the
importance of avoiding exaggerated rhetoric.
He said: “Perhaps we have learnt something, if only that there is a time to
keep silence, a time to let go of the satisfyingly overblown language that
is so tempting to human beings when war is in the air.”
Mr Blair looked solemn as he listened intently to the Archbishop’s address.
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