The Chilcot inquiry has already exposed the folly of the invasion

Saturday, 31 July 2010

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The Chilcot inquiry has heard some damning testimony this summer. Last week the former head of MI5, Baroness Mannigham-Buller, told the panel that the 2003 invasion of Iraq "radicalised" young Muslims in the UK and heightened the domestic terror threat.

On Tuesday, the former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix described as "absurd" the idea that the US and Britain invaded Iraq to uphold the authority of the UN and branded the war "illegal". And yesterday the former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott said the secret intelligence on the threat supposedly posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was based on "tittle-tattle". Three of the main pillars that supported the case for the invasion – that action would make Britain safer; that the military operation was made inevitable by Saddam Hussein's evasive behaviour; that the threat from Iraq was based on intelligence believed to be credible – have been demolished.

The public has now heard the disastrous consequences of the invasion. They have witnessed political protagonists try to disassociate themselves from the decision to invade. And they have seen public servants criticise the manner in which Britain was propelled into war. The Chilcot inquiry has already exposed – beyond doubt – the folly of the invasion of Iraq.

Trojan_Horace

This may all be so, but a few carefully chosen weasel-words in the conclusion of the report and the whole of operation "Bush-Brown-Nose" carried out by Blair will never-the-less escape meaningful censure
iancpurdie

Well in essence all this Chilcot inquiry has exposed is confirmation of many things we already knew as far back as 2002.

Will people be held properly accountable? - NO

Will this inquiry prevent a future repetition of events? - Probably not given the USA/Israel desire for a damaging confrontation with Iran.

Will senior military learn from this and become more critical of the demands of their political masters? - Probably not because careers mean more than doing the right thing by the troops under their command.

Will Britain and other countries in future pursue an independent foreign policy rather than poodle along with the USA? - Perhaps, one can always live in hope.
1J2ackBrian

Many realised the folly of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from the beginning. This country was totally unprepared it seems; repeatedly there have been reports of unprepared troops hampered with poor quality and insufficient weapons, plus much more. If this was the case as seems likely, enquiries should also be made into why the country entered into such a poorly thought out enterprise which was hampered by severe lack of funds, seemingly from the very start.
capa75

Grim stuff: " radicalised" polarised, all based on lies. . .
Stavcol

And we thought it'd be a total whitewash! Trouble for Blair, the Government Departments that enabled him and his corrupt cohorts is that the levels of their malfeasance in public office is so, so staggering that even a whitewash is revelatory!!
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andrewarmitage

It is just so damned frustrating to think that the monster Blair will for ever remain free to deny all wrongdoing, and continue to swan about the world claiming God knows how many thousands of dollars/pounds for a talk, preaching his religion, which he somehow squares with having plotted with Bush Jr in 2002 to invade Iraq, and either laughing up his sleeve at those who want to see him behind bars or performing the cognitive dissonance religionists seem so able to perform. As for Prescott et al. and the sudden heart-searching over whether the intelligence was sound ? well, it defies description. The obvious question of why they didn't speak up at the time has been asked so many times and will no doubt be asked again and again. Why cannot these people really be held responsible? Why is society so soft on them? Why aren't they simply hounded out of public life by the media and other commentators?
obidiah_slope

Blair was Dubya's 'bum boy.' A practice he was not unfamiliar with.
scampy1

Blair was asked before the illegal Iraq war if Saddam got rid of his WMD could he remain in power his answer was yes?