Archbishop Williams questions Iraq efforts

LONDON, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said at a memorial service Friday that British officials failed to anticipate the true cost of the war in Iraq.

Speaking at Friday's service at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Williams accused former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other top officials of not considering how many lives could be lost by engaging in the overseas conflict, the Daily Telegraph reported.

"When such conflict appeared on the horizon, there were those among both policy-makers and commentators who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price," the archbishop said. "Perhaps we have learned something if only that there is a time to keep silence, a time to let go of the satisfyingly overblown language that is so tempting for human beings when war is in the air."

Blair was on hand for Friday's service and watched as Williams said it remained to be seen whether fighting in Iraq was the right thing to do or not.

"In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be," Williams said.