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Kirk calls for UK to pull troops out of Iraq

The Church of Scotland yesterday called for British troops fighting in Iraq to be pulled out "in as short as time as possible", saying they were no longer making a "positive contribution" to bringing peace to the country.

The move was made in a report to the General Assembly by the influential Church and Society Council, which also criticised the British government for allowing Saddam Hussein to be hanged.

The Assembly also heard calls for the Scottish Executive to invest more money in green sources of energy, while setting clear long-term targets for reducing greenhouse gasses.

The Church and Society Council criticised the Executive for allowing economic considerations to lead any decisions on the country's energy policy.

In relation to fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, it said: "We do not favour building base load generating plant, using either fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage or nuclear energy. For their different reasons... we see neither of these as good routes to go down."

The Kirk's call to remove troops from Iraq is a significant shift. It has seen them as helping to bring peace to the region. But the Assembly agreed yesterday that British troops "could no longer be seen to be a positive contribution to resolving the situation" and therefore it was "time to bring the troops home from Iraq".

Full story at The Scotsman.