The Iraq Inquiry Report comes out on Wednesday, 6th July. There will be a few days debate in Parliament and then the Summer Recess will arrive and people will be off on their holidays, and we will all forget it. For years it has been in the long grass and now it will be a holiday moan. But what we did in the Iraq War needs discussing before Chilcot comes out. Let us recall what we did.
1. We ignored the clear tested evidence from Hussein Kamel al-Majid, given in 1995, who was murdered by his father in law Saddam Hussein for giving it, that all the weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed in 1991-3. “I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons—biological, chemical, missile, nuclear—were destroyed.”
2. The Prime Minister failed to make an independent decision about undertaking an illegal war, but merely followed the United States to war out of loyalty.
3. The War was illegal. Jack Straw was told this, but ignored the advice to his two chief advisors. The Attorney General said it was illegal, but was sent to America at the last moment to make him change his mind.He did, rather than resign and denied his office requirement to uphold the rule of law. We engaged in an illegal invasion of a largely unarmed nation.
4. We, and the United States, bullied the United Nations, ignored their weapons inspectors, and failed to observe the United Nations’ principle of not attacking other nations and deeply damaging it ans an institution.
5. The United States and British Governments controlled much of the international media machine into claiming that Saddam was dangerous, when he patently was not. Most of the media went along with it, including the BBC who was bullied into compliance. The Murdoch Media were especially bad.
6. The Intelligence Services in both the United States and the UK were largely persuaded to support a tale which was untrue, led by John Scarlett, who was knighted for his support of the Blair line. A world-wide portrayal of untruths about the Iraqi regime was mounted as a basis for invasion.
7. Both the central Civil Service and Tony Blair destroyed the proper practice of Cabinet Government to push through the decision that Blair had made.
8. The United Kingdom Parliament voted for a resolution containing several untruths by 412 to 149 MPs (73%) to authorize the war, again through establishment pressure. Both New Labour and Conservative Parties strongly endorsed the war.
9. The Hutton Report (completed in five months) was wrongly used to pillory the BBC and push out its Director General.
10. The underlying causes of the War, that arms companies linked to the neo-cons in the American administration and especially to Cheney and Rumsfeldt, wanted a war against an unarmed foe and that Bush mindlessly needed to beat someone after 9/11, were not and have not been recognized.
11. The United States and the United Kingdom owe reparations to Iraq even of some $3-10 trillion for the damage that has been done by this illegal war.
12. Our War with Iraq created the failed state in which ISIS and terrorism could flourish and led to the present crisis in Syria. It is the most calamitous foreign policy of the past sixty years, and we are culpable for much of the present disorder in the Middle East.
13. We fail to examine and understand the damage caused by war and the belligerence caused by our military-industrial complex, or address the process whereby western arms companies armed Saddam Hussein and made him a problem in the Middle East.
14. We do not consider that our “special relationship” with the United States, given its vast military-industrial complex and proclivity to war, is dangerous and should be reviewed.