Prince Andrew, The Duke of York, waded into the Iraq fiasco in an interview with the International Herald Tribune. He criticised the US administration for failing to listen to advice from Britain on how to avoid problems following the war in Iraq.
He said that the war had led to a "healthy scepticism" in Britain towards what was said in Washington, noting that the US should have learned lessons from British colonial history.
Doubtless that will go down like a lead balloon in Washington!
Quote:
"..occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the US might listen and learn from our experiences.
If you are looking at colonialism, if you are looking at operations on an international scale, if you are looking at understanding each other's culture, understanding how to operate in a military insurgency campaign - we have been through them all.
We've won some, lost some, drawn some. The fact is there is quite a lot of experience over here which is valid and should be listened to."
American government officials refused to comment. An insider wisely told the Telegraph that it was not an area they would "want to touch with a bargepole".
The Prince is of course correct.
However, he is assuming that we really pushed our case hard at the time with Washington. After all, we only have Bliar's word for it that we made serious overtures about the post invasion strategy.
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