Lack of funds cost British soldiers' lives: report

Friday, March 5, 2010
LONDON (AFP) - – Gordon Brown's failure to properly fund the military as finance minister cost soldiers' lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former British armed forces chief said Friday, a newspaper reported.
The accusation piled fresh pressure on Brown, now British prime minister, ahead of his appearance at a public inquiry into the Iraq war, where he is expected to be challenged over allegations he cut military funding.
"Not fully funding the army in the way they had asked... undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers," General Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie told the Times newspaper.
"He should be asked why he was so unsympathetic towards defence and so sympathetic to other departments," said Guthrie, who led the armed forces from 1997 to 2001.
The attack comes amid growing criticism of Brown's role during the 2003 US-led invasion and will heighten fears in his administration the hearing could damage the ruling Labour Party as the general election approaches.
In his testimony to the inquiry in January, the defence secretary at the time, Geoff Hoon, said his ministry had lacked funds for years before the war.
Much of the funding criticisms have focused on the use of lightly armoured Snatch Land Rovers in Iraq and Afghanistan, lambasted by critics who claim they were unable to withstand roadside bombs used by insurgents in both conflicts.
Susan Smith, whose son died in Iraq in 2005 in one of the vehicles, also accused Brown Friday of having failed to protect British forces.
"You were Chancellor at the time, holding the purse strings, so why wasn't money spent on getting the right equipment?" Smith wrote in the Times.
Brown was finance minister from 1997 before taking over as prime minister from Tony Blair in 2007.
Inquiry chairman John Chilcot initially said he would not call Brown or any other serving ministers until after the election, expected on May 6.
But after pressure from opposition parties the premier said he would be happy to appear at any time.
The inquiry is being conducted to identify lessons that can be learned from the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent war. It is examining the period from mid-2001 to the end of July 2009, when British troops formally pulled out of southern Iraq.