Special Air Service (SAS) soldier from Britain has quit his post after a three-month stint in Baghdad, terming the Iraq war as "illegal".
Citing "illegal" tactics by U.S. invaders as the reason, Ben Griffin, 28, told his commanding officer in a formal interview in March 2005 at Hereford that he is not going to return to Iraq as he believed that the war was morally wrong.
Although he believed that the toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a brutal leader who might have posed a threat, Griffin always had doubts over the "legality" of the war, which was launched in March 20 2003.
Griffin, who was part of the Army's Parachute operations in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan, is the first soldier of the Special Air Service (SAS) to refuse to fight and quit the army on moral grounds.
He said it was the "most difficult decision" he ever took in his life. Griffin decided to quit after he witnessed what he described as "draconian" acts by U.S. troops who kidnap innocents during night raids, jail and torture them in prisons such as the notorious Abu Ghraib.
"I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," Griffin, slamming the British Prime Minister Tony Blair for lying to his nation and the world about the war, The Mail said.
In an interview with Sunday Telegraph, Griffin, called in his discharge note by the Army as a "balanced, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions", said the U.S.-led occupation forces had no respect for Iraqis, whom they regarded as "sub-human."
Recalling joint military operations in the war-devastated country, Griffin, said "We would radio back to our headquarters that we were not going to detain certain people because, as far as we were concerned, they were not a threat because they were old men or obviously farmers, but the Americans would say: 'No, bring them back'".
Griffin’s decision not only marks an end to his eight-year military career, but also causes a great embarrassement to the government, the Mail said.
"Trooper Griffin is an experienced soldier. This makes his decision particularly disturbing and his views and opinions must be listened to by the Government," the Mail quoted Patrick Mercer, shadow minister for homeland security, as saying.
Mr. Griffin expected to be arrested, or may be court-martialed and imprisoned for making public such views. But instead he was allowed to leave the Army with his exemplary military record intact, UK’s Telegraph reported.
Nearly three years have passed since the U.S. and its war allies started their illegal military operation in Iraq on the false pretext that Saddam Hussein posed a threat against the United States and the whole world for allegedly possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction and having link to Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, said to be responsible for September 11 attacks on the United States.
After numerous inspections conducted inside Iraq, none of those banned weapons were ever found, and no link between the former Iraqi regime and Al Qaeda was ever proved, which makes the whole basis on which the decision to invade Iraq was built “illegal”.
U.S. and Britain’s efforts to rally international support for the war appears to be dwindling with numerous scandals about the troops attitude in Iraq tarnishing the two government’s image worldwide.
Abu Ghraib torture scandal in April 2004, UK’s torture scandal in June 2005, and another video last month showing British troops brutally beating Iraqi teens, and most recently new pictures uncovering the true extent of the U.S. crimes committed inside the notorious jail near the Iraqi capital- All that revealed the true face of the occupation and true actions of the two invading governments.