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6-11-2004 Scotsman The sorrow and the anger By Ian Johnston and Gethin Chamberlain A BITTER political row broke out last night over the deaths of three Black Watch soldiers in Iraq as their grieving families spoke of their loss. On a day when the 12-year-old daughter of Sergeant Stuart Gray broke down while laying flowers in her father's memory, there were vitriolic exchanges, in particular between Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, and the SNP leader, Alex Salmond. The row erupted as al-Qaeda-linked followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant behind the killing of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley, claimed responsibility on an Islamic website for the suicide attack that killed the three soldiers. Mr Salmond said "a tide of anger" was sweeping across Scotland, and repeated accusations that the Black Watch's deployment into the Sunni Triangle near Baghdad had been a political favour to the US president, George Bush. A furious Mr Hoon said Mr Salmond's remarks "demonstrate clearly there are no depths to which he will not sink", and accused him of trying to score political points over the deaths of Sgt Gray, 31, Private Scott McArdle, 22, and Private Paul Lowe, 19, all from Fife. Meanwhile in Iraq, the Black Watch's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel James Cowan said that while the regiment was "saddened" over the loss of their comrades in the suicide-bomb attack and ambush on Thursday, they would "not be deterred from seeing our task through". The government also came under attack from relatives of the dead privates. Pte Lowe's brother Craig, 18, a serving soldier in the Black Watch currently in the UK, called for the urgent withdrawal of troops from Iraq to prevent the loss of any more lives in a war that his brother thought was "over nothing" apart from "money and oil". And Pte McArdle's uncle, Martin McArdle, of Glenrothes, attacked Mr Bush and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, for sending the troops into "a death trap", which he feared would become another Vietnam. Mr Salmond defended his comments, which clashed with parliamentary convention that MPs should simply offer condolences to the families after the death of British troops. He said: "My duty is to tell the truth, and I'm telling the truth as I see it. What I've got to say about Hoon and the Prime Minister is as nothing compared to what the families of the dead soldiers are saying about them. "There is sadness across Scotland about the loss of these men and there is anxiety about the future and safety of the rest of the [Black Watch] battle group. "But there is also a tide of anger sweeping across the country - anger at the war, anger at the political deployment of the battlegroup and anger at the future of a regiment facing amalgamation. "I don't believe the Prime Minister and defence secretary have any conception of the depth of the anger about what's being done to our soldiers," he said. The Defence Secretary responded angrily, insisting that UK military commanders ordered the battalion to Camp Dogwood, 30 miles south of Baghdad, after thorough consideration of a request from their American counterparts. "I cannot understand why he does this. I cannot understand why someone should seek to take political advantage about the tragic deaths of three brave men and their interpreter," Mr Hoon said. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat MP whose North-East Fife seat is within the Black Watch's main recruitment area, also criticised Mr Salmond, saying the reaction to the deaths had been marked by "great sadness and a determination, with one notable exception, to make no effort to try and make any kind of political capital out of this". Earlier yesterday, on BBC Radio 4, the SNP leader said the Black Watch had been given "an impossible job" filling in for "4,000 American marines". On Thursday night, in the wake of the fatal attack, Mr Salmond had called for the unit to be pulled back to the more peaceful Basra area "as soon as possible" - a move which would leave the new region unpatrolled. Brian Baxter, a sergeant major in the Black Watch until 15 months ago, is an organiser of the campaign to save the regiment from amalgamation into one Scottish "super-regiment" but said this was no time to make political points. Mr Baxter said he had known two of the men who were killed, Sgt Gray and Pte McArdle. "They were all right, just normal Jock Tamson's bairns," he said. Last month, General Sir Michael Walker, the Chief of Defence Staff, warned that the bitter debate over sending the regiment into the Sunni Triangle would encourage the militants to engage in "asymmetric warfare", concentrating attacks on British troops in the hope of undermining morale at home. And last night Brigadier Gary Barnett, a former commander of the Black Watch, said: "I would have thought what General Walker said was correct and would continue to be correct. If you are an insurgent and you meet with success you will obviously try again."
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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