Flawed intelligence.. No Shit...

Chilcot: Blair invaded Iraq before exhausting peaceful options

UK government used ‘flawed intelligence’ to justify its role in the war.

By Tom McTague

Tony Blair’s government made up its mind to take Britain into the U.S.-led war in Iraq before all peaceful options had been exhausted, and based the decision on “flawed intelligence,” according to the long-awaited Chilcot Report released on Wednesday.

Sir John Chilcot, who chaired the seven-year inquiry into events from 2001 to the British withdrawal in 2009, said the U.K. government of the time overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his access to weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion, and was then totally unprepared for the challenge of occupying Iraq.

“We have concluded that the U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted,” said Chilcot. “Military action at that time was not a last resort.”

“Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate,” said Chilcot, presenting the 12-volume, 2.6 million-word report at a time of extreme turbulence in U.K. politics. “The government failed to achieve its stated objectives.”

The Labour government’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 has long divided U.K. politics. In an emotional news conference, Blair insisted he acted “in good faith” and pointed out that the report did not uphold accusations that he faked intelligence, deceived his cabinet or made secret prior commitments with U.S. president George W. Bush.

The Chilcot report included a previously classified memo from Blair to Bush written on July 28, 2002 — many months before the invasion — in which the then prime minister said: “I will be with you, whatever.” Removing Saddam Hussein from power “is the right thing to do,” wrote Blair, noting that while he could be contained, such a decision “is always risky.”

However, the former U.K. prime minister said Wednesday he felt “more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe” for the mistakes that were made in the preparation, execution and aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.

“I ask people to put themselves in my shoes as prime minister,” said Blair, insisting that “it was better to remove Saddam Hussein” and that he did not believe this was the cause of “the terrorism we see today” in the Middle East and elsewhere.

‘Who is responsible?’

Labour‘s current leader Jeremy Corbyn, who opposed the invasion and warned in March 2003 that “all kinds of conflicts in Iraq are going to explode,” has said repeatedly that he believes Blair should be tried for war crimes. Corbyn refrained from attacking Blair directly in his statement to parliament on Wednesday, but said the war was “an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext” and those responsible should face up to the consequences.

Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond has called for Blair to be impeached and suggested the ongoing coup against Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party is a deliberate attempt to prevent him from attacking his predecessor. Salmond said after the release of the report that there should be serious consideration of political and legal action.

“After such carnage, people will ask inevitable questions of was conflict inevitable and worthwhile? The answer from Chilcot is undoubtedly no,” said Salmond. “And who is responsible? The answer is undoubtedly Tony Blair.”

As Chilcot presented his report, demonstrators outside waved banners saying “Blair War Criminal” and “Jail Blair,” and relatives of some of the 179 British soldiers who died in the conflict spoke out.

“Now we know where we stand and what we can do. Tony Blair should be taken to court for trial for murder,” said Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon died in Basra in 2004. “He can’t get away with this any more.”

Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that the main lesson for those in power was that “taking the country to war should always be a last resort” and that full consultation across the government, and with the United Nations, was crucial.

“Sending our brave troops onto the battlefield without the right equipment was unacceptable, and whatever else we learn from this conflict we must all pledge this will never happen again,” said Cameron, in his harshest comment on the report.

The Conservative leader said MPs should closely study the comments made by Chilcot that the circumstances in which Blair’s government decided there was a legal basis for the war “were far from satisfactory.”

Chilcot said the U.K. military went into Iraq assuming it would be a “well executed, U.S.-led, U.N.-implemented operation in a relatively secure environment.” The U.S., Britain and their allies had promised to deliver a “new Iraq at peace with itself and its neighbors,” where there would be respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Instead, Chilcot said, the U.K. did not have a decisive impact on policy during the occupation of Iraq, and failed in its task of stabilizing and rebuilding the four provinces in the south of the country under British command.

“The scale of the U.K. effort in post-conflict Iraq never matched the challenge,” said Chilcot.