“Britain has to be prepared to “go to war” is the message of the outgoing British Chief of Staff General Sir David Richards.
In an interview in the Daily Telegraph, Richards criticized the British government for its ineptitude. According the General Richard, if the British government wishes to restrain the Syrian regime, it must continue arming the Al Qaeda rebels as well as implement a no-fly zone. “The (former) Chief of the Defence Staff also warns that the Government needs to clarify its “political objective” in Syria before a coherent military plan for dealing with the Assad regime can be recommended.”
General Sir David Richards, however, emphasized that a “no fly zone” is not enough, and what is required is an all out ground war, implying the illegal land invasion of a sovereign country.
“You have to establish a ground control zone. You have to take out their air defences. You also have to make sure they can’t manoeuvre – which means you have to take out their tanks, and their armoured personnel carriers and all the other things that are actually doing the damage.
The chief of the defence staff also warns that simply introducing a no-fly zone on its own would not prove effective and that other military measures would be required. (Con Coughlin and Robert Winnett, Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2013. Read Complete Daily Telegraph article: Army chief: We risk war with Syria)
In his interview with The Daily Telegraph, General Sir David Richards said that “if you want to have the material impact on the Syrian regime’s calculations that some people seek” then “ground targets” would have to be “hit”. …
However, in recent days, the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for further intervention appears to have waned following private warnings from Sir David and Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, about the implications of being drawn further into the Syrian civil war.
… There is a lack of international consensus on how to take this forward,” he said. “We are trying to cohere the opposition groups, but they are difficult to cohere because there are many different dimensions to them.
“So it is work in progress, so I am very clear in my military advice to the government that we need to understand what the political objective is before we can sensibly recommend what military effort and forces should be applied to it.”
He added: “That is something we debate a lot, from the Prime Minister downwards. We also need to do this with our allies. Allies have different views on the way ahead. Understandably there is a great reluctance to see Western boots on the ground in a place like Syria.”
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Sir David, 61, said: “If you wanted to have the material impact on the Syrian regime’s calculations that some people seek, a no fly zone per se is insufficient.
“You have to be able, as we did successfully in Libya, to hit ground targets.
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“If you want to have the material effect that people seek you have to be able to hit ground targets and so you would be going to war if that is what you want to do.” (Con Coughlin and Robert Winnett, Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2013. (Copyright the Daily Telegraph)
Read Complete Daily Telegraph article: Army chief: We risk war with Syria
Michel Chossudovsky contributed to this report.
