A letter from 52 former senior British diplomats to Tony Blair

Dear Prime Minister,

We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high
commissioners, governors and senior international
officials, including some who have long experience of
the Middle East and others whose experience is
elsewhere, have watched with deepening concern the
policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel
problem and Iraq, in close cooperation with the United
States. Following the press conference in Washington at
which you and President Bush restated these policies,
we feel the time has come to make our anxieties public,
in the hope that they will be addressed in parliament
and will lead to a fundamental reassessment.

The decision by the US, the EU, Russia and the UN to
launch a "road map" for the settlement of the
Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the major
powers would at last make a determined and collective
effort to resolve a problem which, more than any other,
has for decades poisoned relations between the west and
the Islamic and Arab worlds. The legal and political
principles on which such a settlement would be based
were well established: President Clinton had grappled
with the problem during his presidency; the ingredients
needed for a settlement were well understood and
informal agreements on several of them had already been
achieved. But the hopes were ill-founded. Nothing
effective has been done either to move the negotiations
forward or to curb the violence. Britain and the other
sponsors of the road map merely waited on American
leadership, but waited in vain.

Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the
international community has now been confronted with
the announcement by Ariel Sharon and President Bush of
new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which
will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood. Our
dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact
that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning
the principles which for nearly four decades have
guided international efforts to restore peace in the
Holy Land and which have been the basis for such
successes as those efforts have produced.

This abandonment of principle comes at a time when
rightly or wrongly we are portrayed throughout the Arab
and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and brutal
occupation in Iraq.

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that
there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam
settlement. All those with experience of the area
predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the coalition
forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as
has proved to be the case. To describe the resistance
as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is
neither convincing nor helpful. Policy must take
account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most
complex country in the region. However much Iraqis may
yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one
could now be created by the coalition is naive. This is
the view of virtually all independent specialists on
the region, both in Britain and in America. We are glad
to note that you and the president have welcomed the
proposals outlined by Lakhdar Brahimi. We must be ready
to provide what support he requests, and to give
authority to the UN to work with the Iraqis themselves,
including those who are now actively resisting the
occupation, to clear up the mess.

The military actions of the coalition forces must be
guided by political objectives and by the requirements
of the Iraq theatre itself, not by criteria remote from
them. It is not good enough to say that the use of
force is a matter for local commanders. Heavy weapons
unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language,
the current confrontations in Najaf and Falluja, all
these have built up rather than isolated the
opposition. The Iraqis killed by coalition forces
probably total 10-15,000 (it is a disgrace that the
coalition forces themselves appear to have no
estimate), and the number killed in the last month in
Falluja alone is apparently several hundred including
many civilian men, women and children. Phrases such as
"We mourn each loss of life. We salute them, and their
families for their bravery and their sacrifice,"
apparently referring only to those who have died on the
coalition side, are not well judged to moderate the
passions these killings arouse.

We share your view that the British government has an
interest in working as closely as possible with the US
on both these related issues, and in exerting real
influence as a loyal ally. We believe that the need for
such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency.
If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case
for supporting policies which are doomed to failure.

Yours faithfully,

Sir Graham Boyce (ambassador to Egypt 1999-2001);
Sir Terence Clark (ambassador to Iraq 1985-89);
Francis Cornish (ambassador to Israel 1998-2001);
Sir James Craig (ambassador to Saudi Arabia 1979-84);
Ivor Lucas (ambassador to Syria 1982-84);
Richard Muir (ambassador to Kuwait 1999-2002);
Sir Crispin Tickell (British permanent representative
to the UN 1987-90);
Sir Harold (Hooky) Walker (ambassador to Iraq 1990-91),
and 44 others

[Full list of signatories: Brian Barder; Paul Bergne;
John Birch; David Blatherwick; Graham Boyce; Julian
Bullard; Juliet Campbell; Bryan Cartledge; Terence
Clark; David Colvin; Francis Cornish; James Craig;
Brian Crowe; Basil Eastwood; Stephen Egerton; William
Fullerton; Dick Fyjis-Walker; Marrack Goulding; John
Graham; Andrew Green; Vic Henderson; Peter Hinchcliffe;
Brian Hitch; Archie Lamb; David Logan; Christopher
Long; Ivor Lucas; Ian McCluney; Maureen MacGlashan;
Philip McLean; Christopher MacRae; Oliver Miles; Martin
Morland; Keith Morris; Richard Muir; Alan Munro;
Stephen Nash; Robin O’Neill; Andrew Palmer; Bill
Quantrill; David Ratford; Tom Richardson; Andrew
Stuart; David Tatham; Crispin Tickell; Derek Tonkin;
Charles Treadwell; Hugh Tunnell; Jeremy Varcoe; Hooky
Walker; Michael Weir; Alan White.]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1204085,00.html