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Former UK Defence Secy, three Peers warn on Afghan bombing
Continued bombing of Afghanistan could destabilise Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and put Pakistani nuclear weapons into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, a former defence secretary and three other British peers warned Wednesday.
Saudi and Egyptian regimes could also be overthrown along with a "general
flare-up in the Middle East," said the letter, also signed by House of Lords
members Nicolas Rea, Mary Warnock and Michael Young.
“The longer the bombing continues, the greater the danger, while leaving
(Osama) bin Laden untouched in his bombproof cave," it said.
Healy, who led the Defense Ministry from 1964 to 1970 and was deputy leader of
the Labor Party from 1980 to 1983, is the most senior member of Prime Minister
Tony Blair's party to speak out against the military campaign.
Seventeen members of the House of Commons, mostly from Labor, have also
rejected the war effort. Last week they forced a procedural vote in the Commons
that ended with a 373-13 vote in favor of Britain's participation in the
campaign.
Bureau Report