Ex military chief defends Iraq troop deployment

Santo Domingo.- The deployment of Dominican troops to the war in Iraq was a political decision by then president Hipolito Mejia, as an attribute in the Constitution, said on Friday Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, the Armed Forces Minister at that time.

He said Mejia’s order to deploy troops to Iraq had a justification, and as head of the military he could only comply with an order from his Commander in Chief.

"It was an impertinence to ask the President, did you pass it through Congress? Please! The president’s question was simple, in the language of the president: "Soto, are we able to do that? Yes sir (he answered) because the ability was there. Now, tell the president that’s a geopolitical thing, that’s not the military’s task. Not of the secretary, or of any military."