The head of the British army has called for British forces to be withdrawn from Iraq "sometime soon". General Sir Richard Dannatt said their presence was exacerbating security problems in Iraq and Britain's difficulties around the world.
In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, he also suggested that the Government's aim of creating a liberal democracy in Iraq was "naive" and would not be achieved.
Sir Richard, who became Chief of the General Staff in August, told the paper "we should get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems".
"Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance," he said. "I don't say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them."
According to him, the effects of the conflict could be felt in Britain, where there was a "moral compass spinning" and the Islamist threat had to be faced up to.
