Ex-SAS officer hits out at Iraq war 'sham'

ABC News
Nov. 26, 2006

A former senior SAS officer has called for the immediate withdrawal of Australia's troops in Iraq.

Peter Tinley was the lead tactical planner for Australia's special forces in 2002 ahead of the Iraq invasion.

He went on to become the deputy commander for the joint special forces group in western Iraq.

Mr Tinley has spoken out against the war, two years after retiring from the military.

The 44-year-old says Australia's involvement in the war has been a strategic and moral blunder.

"I think it's morally bankrupt to actually consider - when you look at the reasons for this conflict and the reasons this Government took us into that war - I think it's an absolute shame and it's a sham and this Government ought to own up to what it's done and make amends," he said.

"I think we can better contribute by our outstanding training regime and I think we could do that outside the country.

"I think it's safer for the Iraqi military, the Iraqi police, if we were to set up some sort of base outside the country and produce an outstanding result in terms of training for their troops."

Mr Tinley says the Australian troops' presence in Iraq is not popular with the Australian people.

"It's not appropriate for us to be in there, there is no particular reason tactically that we should remain there," he said.

"We've done a lot of the work early on in the piece and there's a lot of other ways we can define our contribution to the people of Iraq and our US alliance."

However, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says the decision to send troops to Iraq was not taken lightly and was in Australia's best interests.

Federal Opposition spokesman Robert McClelland says the Government should listen to Mr Tinley.

"This is a solid, proven SAS officer, saying that we shouldn't have gone into Iraq and we shouldn't be there," he said.












All original InformationLiberation articles CC 4.0



About - Privacy Policy