- The widow of a British commando killed in the Iraq war
has accused Tony Blair of "deceiving" her husband with misleading
claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
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- Lianne Seymour lost her husband Ian, 27, a Royal Navy
communications mechanic, in a helicopter crash in Kuwait hours after the
war began. She has been left to raise their son Beck, three, on her own.
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- Now, following the growing controversy over Iraq's "missing"
arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Mrs Seymour has become convinced
that the war was unjustified.
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- Thousands of servicemen and women will share her growing
sense of personal betrayal, she claimed - and feel doubly suspicious about
the next call to go to war.
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- The "contradictions and deceiving" by Mr Blair
"disables our servicemen and women, and it must make them uneasy for
future possible conflicts", she said.
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- "I do feel that we were misled by Mr Blair in justifying
this war. I don't think it was the right time or the right way of doing
things, but the result now is that Saddam isn't in command in Iraq any
more.
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- "Let's just be hopeful that we've made this world
a better place for the Iraqis at least [but] I don't think it's right that
Mr Blair should mislead us and our servicemen. After all, they're the ones
who are brave enough to go out there and do the job. He should at least
be honest about his reasons and take warning from this that everybody was
opposed to it before."
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- Her husband - who, after 11 years' service in the Navy,
was applying for a permanent transfer to the Royal Marines - had left for
war confident it was justified. "His words to my son were that he's
going to make this world a better place for other little boys and girls,"
she said.
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- Her bitterness has been amplified by a series of blunders
by the Ministry of Defence and US forces after Mr Seymour was killed on
21 March, along with seven other men from 3 Commando Brigade and four US
troops in the Sea Knight helicopter crash.
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- Soon after the crash, the Navy asked Mrs Seymour to return
£400 in pay covering 10 days from the date of her husband's death.
Initially, Mr Blair claimed her revelation was untrue under questioning
in the Commons - a denial Downing Street later retracted. At the same time,
she was given three months' notice to quit their married quarters at a
Royal Navy camp in Poole, Dorset.
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- Faced with public outrage, both requests were quickly
withdrawn by the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon. The Navy has promised Mrs
Seymour will be given ample time to find a new home, although she claims
that she is getting little practical help to do so.
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- Finally, to Mrs Seymour's horror, it emerged last month
that her husband's body had been incomplete when it was cremated with full
military honours in April. The local coroner told her that other body parts
were in another coffin in Britain and a "major limb" had been
shipped to the US. She flew to the US to reclaim those remains last month,
and still fears further remains may be missing.
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- The worst offence, Mrs Seymour argues, is that the Government
is guilty of a breach of trust - the implied contract that soldiers fight
just wars and die for good reasons.
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- "Servicemen aren't allowed to have opinions or principles
on whether things are right or wrong," she said. "They have to
put their whole faith and trust in the people who are sending them there."
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- She is also unhappy about the size of the £26,000
sum received after her husband's death, and the £6,700 taxable war
widow's pension she now gets. Other wives left widowed at the naval base
feel equally upset. "We're all traumatised by what's happened,"
she said. "They all feel let down by the treatment we've received.
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- "For the sake of what they've given us, they might
as well not have bothered. It's impossible that we can rebuild our lives
on what they've decided to award us. It's not an award. It's an insult."
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