Letter Herald Express - response to Mr Friend's political opportunism on Iraq

Dear Sir,

For David Friend to accuse Liberal Democrats of making political capital out of the war in Iraq really is taking hypocrisy to new levels.

Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed the war and argued that action was taken based on a false prospectus. Successive enquiries on both sides of the Atlantic, culminating in the Butler report, have concluded that the intelligence was inaccurate, procedures inadequate and the British public misled. Yes, a brutal dictator has been removed, but the decision to go to war to achieve this has cost the lives of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians including many women and children. Hundreds of coalition servicemen have been killed and the country is constantly reported as being in a state of chaos. Daily bombings are the norm, and the restoration of public services seems to be, in many cases, a long awaited dream.

Since the democratic decision to go to war was taken by Parliament Liberal Democrats have backed our troops to the hilt. These soldiers, sailors and airmen have to carry out orders determined by their political masters and in doing so have shown all the professionalism, expertise and bravery that make our troops the best in the world. What a superb job they have done and continue to do!

The fact that our forces have been put in such a position, innocent people have been killed in their thousands and Iraq is still suffering, is due to political decisions determined by flawed procedures and based on false information - as conclusively proved by Butler.

Going to war is one of the most fundamental and important decisions a government has to make. That such a decision was made in such an amateurish way is a total disgrace. It is no wonder that the majority of the public feel they have been duped and no longer trust this Labour Government or, indeed, the Conservative opposition who made no attempt to question or challenge.

To emphasise this to the electorate during an election campaign is far from making political capital. It is reminding people how we arrived at this disastrous state of affairs. The public have made their views clear in the two recent by-elections - swings of 21% and 27% from Labour to the Liberal Democrats and swings of 10% and 15% from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Treleaven