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Bush's offer evokes protests in U.K.

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON NOV 15. Angry families of British soldiers killed in the Iraq war have spoken up strongly against the U.S. President, George W. Bush's visit to Britain next week and dismissed his offer to meet them as a political `stunt'.

Mr. Bush remarks in an interview on Friday that he would meet the bereaved families and share with them his "sorrow for the sacrifice'' were met with withering contempt and many said they had no desire to meet him.

"I don't know how he has the nerve to show his face in this country after costing the lives of 54 British soldiers for his own glory,'' said Reg Keys whose son Thomas was killed in Basra. Mr. Keys bristled at Mr. Bush's description of the casualties as a sacrifice for a "noble cause''. He said there was nothing `noble' about the senseless deaths and that if he were to meet Mr. Bush he would tell him that he caused his son's death.

Robert Kelly, who lost his 18-year-old son, said Mr. Bush and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, did not really care about the casualties. "For these people to meet families, it is only for their own gain. They are not sympathetic towards people like me. They don't really care that my son lost his life,'' he told the BBC.

His son, Andrew, is the youngest British soldier to die in Iraq.

Debbi Allbutt, whose husband was killed in "friendly fire'', criticised Mr. Bush for wanting to meet only some of the families and said: "I don't want to see him if he can't be bothered to see all of us.''

Meanwhile, the BBC reported that security services had been placed on a higher level of alert amid intelligence of an Al-Qaeda attack.

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