2nd British ex-general criticizes Rumsfeld

A second retired British general criticized the United States’ Iraq policy, saying in a newspaper interview published Sunday that it was “fatally flawed.”

Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, the most senior British officer involved in postwar planning, said he had raised serious concerns about the possibility of Iraq falling into chaos but that they were dismissed by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

“Right from the very beginning we were all very concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the postwar plan, and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process,” Cross said in the Sunday Mirror.

The comments come a day after the release of critical comments from the general who led the British army during the invasion.

Retired Gen. Mike Jackson also singled out Rumsfeld for criticism, saying his approach to the invasion was “intellectually bankrupt,” according to excerpts from his autobiography published Saturday by the Daily Telegraph.

Rumsfeld stepped down as Defense secretary Nov. 8, 2006, one day after midterm U.S. elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.

In December, President Bush praised Rumsfeld for his service and did not mention the often-harsh criticism directed at the secretary.

Former U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane, who was vice chief of staff at the time the Iraq war was launched in 2003, said in an interview last week that Britain had not deployed enough troops to properly stabilize the region around the southern city of Basra and allowed a bad security situation to deteriorate further.

But Cross, 59, said the problems Iraq now faces were predicted in 2003. “There is no doubt that with hindsight the U.S. postwar plan was fatally flawed and many of us sensed that at the time,” he said.