FORMER LIB-DEM leader Sir Menzies Campbell used the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war to call for the withdrawal of UK’s troops.

The North East Fife MP—shadow foreign secretary at the outbreak on March 20, 2003—claimed the invasion had been “wrong in conception and disastrous in execution.”

He told The Courier, “It’s time for Britain to establish a framework for an orderly withdrawal of all our forces.

“About 4000 British troops are now based at Basra Airport, having abandoned their previous base in Basra city. The question which now needs to be asked is what practical or military purpose are they serving?”

He recalled, almost five years to the day, voting with the rest of his party in the House of Commons against the war.

“Nothing that has happened since has caused me to regret that decision nor to revise my judgment that the action was illegal, unjustified and deeply damaging to British interests.”

He said the Iraq war was Tony Blair’s legacy and would be his epitaph.

“Mr Blair did good things in Kosovo and Sierra Leone but his determination to support George W. Bush in all circumstances has cost him and this country dear.”

He said Mr Blair’s justification for military action changed on almost a daily basis.

“He argued at different times that Saddam Hussein was in breach of UN Security Council resolutions and should pay the penalty, he argued for regime change and he argued for the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

“The truth, as we have now learned, is that Bush was always intent on regime change and our Prime Minister was willing to go along with that, which was a clear breach of Article 2 of the Charter of the UN.

“No weapons of mass destruction have ever been found and we now know that the attorney general, the most senior legal adviser on the government, was at least in the first instance deeply sceptical about the legality of what was proposed.”

He also said no proper arrangements were made for the administration of the country and that al Qaida took advantage of chaos and confusion to establish itself in the country.

“The result has been five years of interminable bloodshed with thousands and thousands of Iraqis murdered, nearly 4000 American soldiers killed and 175 British troops suffering the same fate, not to mention the huge numbers of civilians and military who have been grievously wounded.”