Second Top British General (Tim Cross) Blasts US ...

Britain's Major General Tim Cross.

Is it tinfoil hat time?

Again?

Well, we two definitely don't damned well know.

Maybe you can tell us.

Three times, as we've neared completion of this piece - all of our copy has somehow mysteriously been 'disappeared'.

Disappeared completely. Totally. Inexplicably.

We wonder who to blame?

Blogger? AOL?. Sunday Mirror? Someone (or something) else?

So at this fourth attempt we're omitting our personal observations, opinions, sarcastic comments et al, and trying again using clip & pastes only.

General attacks 'flawed' U.S. Iraq policy

EXCLUSIVE Tensions between allies rise to fever pitch

By Rupert Hamer Defence Correspondent 02/09/2007

A second British General has attacked America's "fatally flawed" policy in Iraq, ratcheting up the tension between the two allies on the issue.

Major General Tim Cross - the most senior British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq - said he raised serious concerns with former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld BEFORE the invasion.

(snip)

General Cross, 56, said: "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.

" I had lunch with Rumsfeld in Washington before the invasion in 2003 and raised concerns about the need to internationalise the reconstruction of Iraq and work closely with the United Nations.

"I also raised concerns over the numbers of troops available to maintain security and aid reconstruction. He didn't want to hear that message. The US had already convinced themselves that Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy.

"Anybody who tried to tell them anything that challenged that idea - they simply shut it out."

(snip)

Read the rest of the Sunday Mirror interview report.

There's also an AOL related item.