British troops in Iraq defended

LONDON – Britain’s Defence Secretary John Reid mounted a robust defence of the country’s troops serving in Iraq yesterday following the release of video footage apparently showing some beating unarmed civilians.

Critics should be “very slow to condemn” British armed forces because they faced a situation that was “far more difficult than at any time in history because we face an enemy that is completely unconstrained”, he said. “The international terrorist is not constrained by legality, by morality, by any convention, Geneva or otherwise, yet our troops are increasingly constrained not just by international law and convention, the standards we want to keep, but by media scrutiny, by video phone, by mobile phone, by satellite dishes,” he told BBC television.Reid said increased scrutiny was “not necessarily a bad thing” but stressed that terrorists were prepared to use a variety of methods to “undermine the morale and the will of democracies” to fight to defend their freedoms.”The terrorist, who would never allow any freedom on television, will use our television to show hostages being demeaned, being degraded and in some cases being executed,” he added.”Why? Because they use our freedom as the tool to terrorise our people…We ought to be very slow to condemn our troops fighting in those circumstances and I think the public agree with that.”The defence secretary, who is due to give a keynote speech in London Monday calling for greater understanding of the realities of modern combat, again condemned the images, which were shot after riots in southern Iraq in 2003.But he insisted they needed to be viewed in the context that between 80 000 and 100 000 British troops had served in Iraq since the start of the US-led military action to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.During that time, there had been only five “sustainable allegations” of mistreatment against 20 to 30 Iraq civilians, he added.Britain currently has about 8 000 troops stationed in Iraq’s four southern provinces.- Nampa-AFP”The international terrorist is not constrained by legality, by morality, by any convention, Geneva or otherwise, yet our troops are increasingly constrained not just by international law and convention, the standards we want to keep, but by media scrutiny, by video phone, by mobile phone, by satellite dishes,” he told BBC television.Reid said increased scrutiny was “not necessarily a bad thing” but stressed that terrorists were prepared to use a variety of methods to “undermine the morale and the will of democracies” to fight to defend their freedoms.”The terrorist, who would never allow any freedom on television, will use our television to show hostages being demeaned, being degraded and in some cases being executed,” he added.”Why? Because they use our freedom as the tool to terrorise our people…We ought to be very slow to condemn our troops fighting in those circumstances and I think the public agree with that.”The defence secretary, who is due to give a keynote speech in London Monday calling for greater understanding of the realities of modern combat, again condemned the images, which were shot after riots in southern Iraq in 2003.But he insisted they needed to be viewed in the context that between 80 000 and 100 000 British troops had served in Iraq since the start of the US-led military action to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.During that time, there had been only five “sustainable allegations” of mistreatment against 20 to 30 Iraq civilians, he added.Britain currently has about 8 000 troops stationed in Iraq’s four southern provinces.- Nampa-AFP