General supports Iraq pullout

last updated 8 January 2015

London

Britain’s top army commander was forced to backpedal this week after he told a newspaper he thought Britain should pull out of Iraq. Gen. Richard Dannatt told the Daily Mail last week that British troops should leave Iraq “sometime soon, because our presence exacerbates the security problems.” After a flurry of phone calls between the prime minister’s office and the Defense Ministry, the general said he wanted to “clarify” his remarks. He does not support leaving Iraq until “the job is done,” he said. But then he added: “I’m not a maverick. I’m a soldier speaking up for his army.”