October 18, 2006

General Sir Richard Dannatt

This week, BuzzFlash honors General Sir Richard Dannatt of the United Kingdom with the "Wings of Justice Award."

In the United States, countless former military brass have lined up to denounce the Iraq War as a fiasco. Congressman John Murtha has been valiantly speaking out for the current Pentagon commanders who cannot publicly criticize Bush or Rumsfeld.

But in the UK, General Sir Richard Dannatt is the current chief of the general staff. He is the active head of the army in Britain.

This past week, he told a British newspaper reporter "that British troops should be brought home 'soon' from Iraq and that their presence was 'exacerbating' tensions. Not only that, but he, in effect, accused the Prime Minister [Tony Blair] of being 'naive' in thinking they could install a liberal democracy in Iraq."

In a second radio interview, not long after the first, "Dannatt suggested Iraq might ultimately 'break' his beloved British army. 'I want an army in five years' time,' he said quietly to the nation."

The BuzzFlash reader from Ireland who nominated Dannatt praised him, "For having the courage to blow the whistle on the war in Iraq."

Dannatt probably wouldn't think of it as anything but his duty as a soldier to speak the truth about the military reality that his troops confront.

Unlike Bush and Blair, Dannatt obviously takes seriously the welfare of those soldiers who have been entrusted to follow his leadership.

The newspaper reporter who first interviewed him noted that "'He was adamantly unpolitical,' she reflected, adding: 'It was all about his vision for the army. He was saying, as a soldier: these are the facts on the ground.""

And for being honest and forthright about "the facts on the ground," Dannatt deserves our gratitude and respect.

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Nominated by: Bee Ring Dalkey of Dublin, Ireland

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