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Australia's defence force chief at the time of the invasion of Iraq said in remarks published Sunday that he now believes the war has increased the threat of Islamic militancy.
The comments by retired general Peter Cosgrove come just days after Britain's army chief caused a furore by saying British troops in Iraq were exacerbating security problems around the world.
“If people say that there has been an energising of the jihadist movement through the protracted war in Iraq — well that's pretty obvious,” Cosgrove told the Sunday Telegraph, using the Islamic term for “holy warrior”.
The highly respected Vietnam veteran, who retired last year, said he had apologised to national police chief Mick Keelty for criticising his comments that the Iraq war had inspired the 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid.
“Things have moved on. I have got no reason to argue the weighty assessments that I am seeing,” Cosgrove said.
The Australian government of Prime Minister John Howard, a close ally of Washington, contributed troops to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and maintains a force of some 1,300 involved in Iraqi operations.
Britain's army chief, General Richard Dannatt, said in an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper Friday that British troops in Iraq should pull out soon.
“I don't say the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them,” he said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair played down the comments, saying Dannatt was not calling for an immediate withdrawal.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer echoed Blair's remarks in an interview on Australian television Sunday.
“In terms of pulling out of Iraq, I don't think the British general was saying that British troops should immediately withdraw,” Downer told Network Ten.
“But if the proposition here is that foreign troops eventually should withdraw from Iraq, everybody agrees with that.
“Nobody wants to stay in Iraq for one minute longer than is necessary and the definition of necessary is whether the Iraqi regime can survive without the support of some foreign troops,” he said.
Opposition Labor Party leader Kim Beazley said Cosgrove's comments supported Labor's opposition to the war and called for Australian troops to be withdrawn.
“General Cosgrove, Commissioner Keelty and many others, including the chief of the British defence forces, now make the point that the war in Iraq has made us less safe in the struggle with fundamentalist terror,” he told reporters.
“It's something the Labor Party said was the likely outcome of that war for a very long period of time, and John Howard owes the Australian people an explanation for what he's done.
“Better still, he owes the Australian defence forces and the rest of us a withdrawal from the situation in Iraq and a concentration on our region.”
