Reid blames Vietnam syndrome for lack of reconstruction in Iraq

John Reid

John Reid, the former Secretary of State for Defence, had an interesting take on the Vietnam syndrome today when he suggested to the Chilcot Inquiry panel that the United States was unprepared to “rebuild” Iraq after the invasion because there were Vietnam War veterans among the US senior military command who wanted no part in “nation-building”.

“The US took a view that, as a result of Vietnam, it was not going to be dragged into reconstruction again…” Reid told the inquiry. “The terrible mistake was not to recognise that Iraq was not Vietnam, that Afghanistan was not Vietnam. The inheritance of that was that American soldiers fought on the battlefield and away from nation-building.”

In her testimony on Tuesday, Clare Short, the former secretary of state for international development, described the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance – a caretaker administration set up by the US Pentagon in January 2003, two months before the invasion – as “a mess… absolutely hopeless”.

Despite his criticism of its reluctance to get involved in reconstruction, Reid said the US had learned quickly: “I think they came from behind us and they are now ahead of us.”

Reid hit out at the media for “salivating” over the prospects of a civil war in Iraq, when sectarian clashes and violence by “insurgents” began to escalate, explaining that part of the problem faced by the occupying forces was that some elements behind the violence were in fact linked to the new Iraqi government.

He said the disbandment of the Iraqi civil service and army had contributed to the chaos that reigned after the invasion. That was the point where “there was a recognition [in the US and Britain], that having pulled down the pillars, this was not going to rise again – this state – like a phoenix from the flames.”

The inquiry panel did not press Reid, however, on why the government had not foreseen this, and had not heeded repeated warnings from the media – and, for that matter, Clare Short – of the dangers of rushing into war without a comprehensive reconstruction and humanitarian aid plan.

Asked whether he thought British forces were overstretched when they were ordered into Helmand province in Afghanistan in 2006, Reid said he had thought they were stretched, but not overstretched. A declassified document shown to the panel suggested hat military chiefs believed the deployment was possible but that it would lead to some “pain and grief”.

BBC - Richard Madeley thinks Tony Blair did not lie

Iraq? What about Gaza?

Iraq? What about Gaza. That is the question posed by historian Avi Shlaim, who claims that one of Tony Blair’s arguments used to justify the Iraq war was that it would help bring justice to Palestinians.

“In his House of Commons speech on 18 March [2003], he promised that action against Iraq would form part of a broader engagement with the problems of the Middle East,” writes Shlaim. “He even declared that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute was as important to Middle East peace as removing Saddam Hussein from power.

“Yet by focusing international attention on Iraq, the war further marginalised the Palestinian question…”

Shlaim also recalls that, in July 2006, “at the height of the savage Israeli onslaught on Lebanon, Blair opposed a security council resolution for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire: he wanted to give Israel an opportunity to destroy Hezbollah, the radical Shi’ite religious-political movement. One year later, in June 2007, he resigned from office. That day he was appointed … special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His main sponsor was Bush and his blatant partisanship on behalf of Israel was probably considered a qualification.”

Blair’s move (Hansard)

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