- "[Bush is] the puppet-master, isn't he? If he says
do something, Tony Blair jumps. I'm angry with the Prime Minister, because
he conned the nation into going to war in the first place."
-
- George Bush's official visit to Britain next week has
been condemned as insensitive and ill-timed by some families of British
troops killed in Iraq.
-
- The relatives claimed that the continuing deaths of coalition
soldiers in Iraq meant the President's state visit - the first by a US
leader since the Coronation in 1953 - was inappropriate.
-
- Reg Keys, whose son, Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, was
one of the six Royal Military Police killed by a mob near Basra in June,
said he had developed "a quite passionate hatred" of the US leader.
-
- "I can't stand the man," said Mr Keys, 51,
of Llanuwchllyn, north Wales. "He has a nerve coming over to this
country after all the misery he's caused. I just can't understand why Bush
was so keen to go to war against Iraq - it's almost as if he was hell bent
on making a name for himself."
-
- His criticisms - which follow angry criticism of Tony
Blair's conduct over Iraq by the families of eight British war dead - were
supported by the mother of one of the first Britons killed in the war,
L/Cpl Shaun Brierley.
-
- Christine Brierley, from Batley, West Yorkshire, said:
"I think it's disgusting the way Bush is carrying on. It's a war that
should never have been fought: then dragging England into it when it wasn't
our war anyway. I just wish all the troops were back home - Americans and
English. At the end of the day, what's going to be resolved?"
-
- Next week President Bush and his wife Laura will stay
at Buckingham Palace and be guests of honour at a state banquet. Anti-war
groups plan protests in London, which have contributed to a decision by
Downing Street to cancel plans for the President to address both Houses
of Parliament.
-
- The Metropolitan police has said it will ban the Stop
the War Coalition from passing Downing Street and Parliament during its
main march on Thursday 20 November - an event expected to attract about
60,000 people - even though Parliament is not expected to be sitting.
-
- Several relatives linked the visit to today's Remembrance
Sunday services, where Britain's 53 war dead will be particularly commemorated.
Lianne Seymour, whose husband Ian, a commando, was one of the first Britons
killed, said: "Being invited here for a state visit isn't appropriate
now. It really isn't a time to be showing off with glorious tributes, considering
the political dimension. For me, and for many other people, this war isn't
over. People are still losing their lives, be it Iraqi, British or American."
-
- Gordon Evans, whose son Lance Bombardier Llywelyn Evans
was killed in the same helicopter crash as Mrs Seymour's husband, said
he wanted Mr Bush to meet British relatives face to face, to explain why
he went to war.
-
- "He's the puppet-master, isn't he? If he says do
something, Tony Blair jumps. I'm angry with the Prime Minister, because
he conned the nation into going to war in the first place."
-
- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=461995
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