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Blair urged to check U.S. move

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON APRIL 21. The reported U.S. move to establish a long-term military presence in Iraq has been greeted with alarm here, putting pressure on the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to check what one commentator called America's "empire-building instincts."

Critics warned that the move was an attempt by Americans to keep the region under their "grip" and could radically change the political realities in West Asia. They said it ran counter to repeated assurances by the U.S. administration that its forces would not stay in Iraq a "day longer" than necessary.

Analysts said the move was also likely to fuel Arab suspicions that the invasion of Iraq was aimed at extending American military and political influence in the area. They were particularly concerned about its implications for Syria and Iran, whom Washington has already identified as part of an "axis of evil." "This is a nightmare unfolding for both Syria and Iran," Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the University of Warwick, told The Guardian.

Reports quoting senior U.S. officials said that America intended to retain for permanent use four strategic bases in Iraq, including the one at the international airport, near Baghdad. The plan, they said, was part of a proposed "long-term defence relationship with Iraq" and though details had not been worked out, it could be on the lines of the American military presence in Afghanistan. A leading London-based Arab specialist said it would be "an alarming step" and would be construed in the Arab world as a move to "control the whole region."

Anti-war Labour MPs warned against Britain giving legitimacy to any U.S. move that was likely to further complicate the situation in the Arab world. Tam Dalyell, father of the House of Commons, said Mr. Blair was pushing Britain into a "situation as difficult as Northern Ireland" except that it was "5,000 miles away."

"The sky is black with chickens of the Bush/Blair folly coming home to roost," he said.

Meanwhile, more MPs joined the growing demand for an inquiry to establish whether they were misled into supporting the war on the plea that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. "We were told it was a war about weapons of mass destruction but they have not been found," the Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn, said.

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