U.K. Army Boss Wants Troops Out Of Iraq

Britain's new army commander said British troops in Iraq are making the situation worse and must leave the country soon, calling Prime Minister Tony Blair's policies "naive," according to an interview published Thursday.

"Our presence exacerbates the security problems," Gen. Richard Dannatt was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail newspaper. The interview was released on the tabloid's Web site.

"Whatever consent we may have had in the first place" from the Iraqi people "has largely turned to intolerance," he said, according to the report.

The Defense Ministry responded to the interview by saying "we have a clear strategy in Iraq. We are there with our international partners in supports of the democratically-elected government of Iraq, under a clear U.N. mandate."

Blair's office said it couldn't immediately comment.

Dannatt's comments are certain to infuriate Blair, who has steadfastly backed U.S. President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, saying it was morally right. The comments are highly unusual — it is unprecedented for a sitting British military commander to publicly criticize the government's foreign policy.

Dannatt's remarks, coupled with recent criticism of the Iraq war from Republican Sen. John Warner and former Secretary of State James Baker, has created a new urgency and new dynamics to the question of whether the United States should be in Iraq, reported CBS News White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Dannatt said that Britain's presence in the country was "exacerbating" security problems domestically, contrary to Blair's stated claims that the war in Iraq had no link to the terror threat facing Britain.

"I don't say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq, but, undoubtedly, our presence in Iraq exacerbates them," he said.

Dannatt, who took over as army commander in late August, described Blair's Iraq policies as "naive," the report said.

He said we should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems," according to the interview.

"We are in a Muslim country, and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear," he was quoted as saying. "As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited — certainly by those in Iraq at the time."

In the interview, Dannatt was severely critical of British and U.S. planning for postwar Iraq, describing the rationale behind the invasion as flawed.

"I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial successful war fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning," he said. "The original intention was that we put in place a liberal democracy that was an exemplar for the region, was pro-West and might have a beneficial effect on the balance within the Middle East.

"That was the hope. Whether that was a sensible or naive hope, history will judge. I don't think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition."