Chilcot Inquiry-Iraq war

[rov1200]

http://news.bbc.co.uk..._politics/8453116.stm

Alastair Campbell giving evidence today on Iraq war did not sex up the dossier. John Scarlett did not intend the dossier to mean 45minutes to hit Cyprus but was only referring to battlefield weapons short range fire.

So who led Blair up the garden path in going to war?

We had intense pictures of Blair lecturing the Commons and on the news footages saying what a danger Saddam posed and we were in mortal danger of his WMD.

Blair may not have been a poodle but a stooge comes to mind. The US already intent on regime change ignored the wishes of the UN and we went along with it. In fact it was plain for all to see trying to get a consensus from the UN security 5 which included France and Russia both who voted against the UN resolution. Blair thought that if he could convince them the war would become legal. But he failed!

He then tried to convince us by expanding on the dossier and included a forward to it. His powers of persuasion convinced many including the Commons to sign up to an illegal war. The actions of Scarlett and also the attorney general who said war was legal should also be complicit,

Will we ever learn the truth?

[Gromit]

It is easy to criticise Britain at every opportunity and lambast our ally the United States, but someone has to stand up to rogue states. al qaeda and Saddam would have free reign to cause havoc in the world if some spineless people had their way.

[rov1200]

The general consensus amongst the experts so far is that more time should have been given to the weapons inspectors to do a through search. They were virtually given complete freedom to scour Iraq.

If Blair had shown some individual streak he could have insisted that British troops be withheld until the inspectors had done their job. Instead Bush set a deadline and Blair decided to follow. In this he did act as a poodle.

With hindisght especially as no WMD were found this would have proved the right decision, for Britain anyway, and the lessons learnt should surely never to enter a future war on an idea or whim.