September 03, 2007	Monday	Sha'aban 20, 1428

LONDON, Sept 2: The British backlash over the United States's handling of post-invasion Iraq grew on Sunday as another military commander blasted Washington's “fatally flawed” policy.

Major General Tim Cross, the top British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq, said he raised serious concerns with then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the possibility of the country descending into chaos.

But Rumsfeld “ignored” or “dismissed” his warnings, the general told the Sunday Mirror newsapaper.

On Saturday, the head of the British Army during the 2003 invasion launched a fierce attack on the United States over its handling of troubled Iraq since.

Gen Sir Mike Jackson branded US post-invasion policy “intellectually bankrupt” and said Rumsfeld was “one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq.”

His comments were criticised by John Bolton, the US's former ambassador to the United Nations, who told BBC radio on Saturday he had “read into a version of history that simply is not supported by the evidence”.

The comments from both top military officers come at an embarrassing time for the British government, which has tried to soothe reported tensions with the United States over Iraq by insisting it will not cut and run from the southern province of Basra.

Gen Jack Keane, a former vice-chief of staff of the US Army, said last month there was “frustration” in Washington at the deteriorating security situation in the British-run area — triggering an angry reaction from some quarters in the British military.

In 2003, Cross, who is now retired, was the deputy head of the coalition's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

“Right from the very beginning we were all very concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the post-war plan — and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process,” the 56-year-old said.—AFP