"Pressure on Blair as he makes final stand on Iraq"

The Chilcot Iraq War Inquiry

By Elizabeth Cutbirth

(See the actual Inquiry video here: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/ )

The Iraq inquiry is not a trial to prosecute representative officials for their actions in war in Iraq, but an array of public hearings with the purpose of education, and investigation of what instigated the war and its legality, “It will consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath. We will therefore be considering the UK's involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned. Those lessons will help ensure that, if we face similar situations in future, the government of the day is best equipped to respond to those situations in the most effective manner in the best interests of the country."

The Tony Blair inquiry began on Jan. 29^th, 2010. The information derived from Blair included that Bush and Blair had meeting discussing the Saddam Hussein as a potential threat before 9/11 and much more so post 9/11. Blair had stated that, “In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he firmly believed that he could not run the risk that Saddam would reconstitute his banned weapons programs. "The decision I took – and frankly would take again – was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction [WMD] we should stop him. That was my view then and that is my view now."

Blair also stated, “that there was no real difference between wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm: regime change was US policy because Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations. "It's more a different way of expressing the same proposition."

The strength of the evidence by the joint intelligence committee “presented at the time” in 2002 led Blair to believe “beyond doubt” that Iraq had weapons of mass-destruction. The weapons, however, were battlefield weapons not long-range missiles. Blair comments, “It would have been better to have corrected it in the light of the significance it later took on,".

Bush also declared that a second UN resolution was unnecessary, and America told its UK ally that if it had to bow out of a possible war, it was okay to do so. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith however, a week before the war, had stated that the war was legal. If he had said it was unlawful, the British would not have entered the war, “He thought he could have got the nine votes necessary for a security council vote in favour of a second resolution if it had not been for the French and the Russians making it clear that they were vehemently opposed”.

As for the aftermath of the war, the article finished with, “Blair blamed Iran and al-Qaida for the problems with postwar Iraq. He insisted there was an immense amount of postwar planning, which centered on the possibility of a humanitarian catastrophe. "People didn't think that al-Qaida and Iran would play the role that they did. It was really the external elements of al-Qaida and Iran that really caused this mission very nearly to fail." The absence of a functioning civil service also created difficulties. Blair said the overall figure for deaths was around 100,000. These were caused by the groups attacking the British and Americans, he said. He said he was shocked when he saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. These inflicted damage to the coalition cause, he said. He added that it would be "worth looking at" the case for having a single cabinet minister in charge of postwar Iraq”.

The Chilcot Inquiries have a long way to go. This tedious task of investigating officials and piecing together evidence is arduous and significant evaluation and an official release of all this information will not be ready by Summer 2010.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/29/tony-blair-iraq-inquiry-key-points