How come the US gets blamed for Iraq and not the UK?

Question

1. The war was fought because of WMD's
2. It was British intel which said Saddam might still have WMD's
3. Iraq was a mandate of UK after WW1, aka property of UK
UK has been known to be imperialistic in the past
4. UK cars still run on gas, right?
5. Are we to believed George Bush Jr. tricked Tony Blair into this?
I've seen Blair argue at Parliment and in front of public, Bush's
toughest question so far was if he saw Brokeback Mountain.
6. British troops are in Iraq, right?

So how come I keep hearing Brits talk like we're to blame for this whole Iraq thing? Really...I'd like to know.

Answer 1

It is always termed as US lead coalition, not UK led coalition. So the leader gets the blame

Answer 2

The US exerted a degree of "force" (I'm trying to search for a better word, since it's not like Bush held a gun to Blair's head) on the UK to get it to go along with the invasion.

Blair believed the relationship between it and the US was too valuable to do anything else but support it wholeheartedly - some would say "blindly".

The UK (or the Blair government, at least), pretty much knew what they were getting into, and no doubt underestimated the insurgency and what followed.

What we can all agree with is, whether or not the invasion was wrong in itself, the way the war was handled by the US was tragically faulty. British troops have handled their participation in the war relatively well, while US troops have not. I have read that drill instructors in the US were actually telling these young recruits that they were going to Iraq to kill Arabs, to avenge 9/11. Their mission was supposed to be to find and destroy the elusive wmds, not to kill civilians. Also, heavy-handed, intrusive tactics by US troops (on orders!) turned the Iraqi population against the US and the rest of the coaltion.

It's all good and well to say, "If we had done it this way...", but I'll say it: If Mike Jackson was supreme commander at the beginning, and a senior UK civil servant had been in charge of the CPA, things probably would have been a lot different and ALL the troops would be home right now.

Answer 3

Americans want to blame the Brits for everything.

Isreal & Palistine...it was the Brits.

World War Two..It was the Brits..

Iraq...It was the Brits..

This in my opinion - is because hollywood likes using Brits as the bad guys.

The Brits are in Iraq fighting "with" America, and doing a damn good job. Without them and they're support.....(and "paying the blood price on this one"..George Bush) America would look more stupid and isolated than it does already.

Answer 4

want to know? READ!!!!

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

"...Jerusalem----April 2.....The American Jewish Congress today congratulated Paul Wolfowitz on his election as the president of the World Bank. “

In Israel, The Jerusalem Post had selected Paul Wolfowitz as its Man of the Year for 2002. The Post stated: "On September 15, 2001, at a meeting in Camp David, Wolfowitz advised President George W. Bush to skip Kabul and train American guns on Baghdad. In March 2003, he got his wish.

"When President Bush says, "America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons" -- that's Wolfowitz talking. When the president calls for "a new Arab charter that champions internal reform, greater political participation, economic openness and free trade" -- that's Wolfowitz's talking, too. But perhaps the greatest measure of Wolfowitz's influence is that Colin Powell now waxes rhapsodic about an Iraq..."

Answer 5

Because Prez Bush always takes the lime light

Answer 6

The UN Russia France and Germany are to blame if they had enforced the Resolutions we would have never got involved!

Answer 7

1. no it's was Bush's greed for oil
2. no, it was US intell.
3. no it wasn't, we gave it back
4. no, we call it petrol
5. no, Tony blair was also greedy
6. yes, at the request of the mission commanders, the USA

Answer 8

Once word: MEDIA