admin
Tony Blair’s reputation was today lacerated by the Iraq War report as it emerged he told George W Bush they should “act now, explain later” two years before the invasion of Iraq in in 2003.
The former prime minister was also accused of twisting intelligence about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to justify the war that led to the deaths of 179 British soldiers.
After seven years of deliberations, the Chilcot report found that the former prime minister overplayed evidence about the dictator’s weaponry and ignored peaceful means to send troops into the country.
In a devastating set of conclusions, Sir John found Blair presented the case for war with “a certainty which was not justified” based on “flawed” intelligence about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
It also said Blair had “overestimated” his ability to influence US president George W Bush and the way the legal basis was established was branded “far from satisfactory” and bypassed the UN and undermined the international system.
Twenty nine secret letters Blair wrote to George W Bush were published for the first time today and in July 2002, eight months before MPs voted to back an invasion, Blair had told the president “I will be with you, whatever”.
But after Sir John published his report today Tony Blair said the inquiry proved there “was no falsification or improper use of Intelligence”, “no deception of Cabinet” and “no secret commitment to war whether at Crawford Texas in April 2002 or elsewhere”.
Families of the 179 servicemen and women who died in the Iraq War said today they are set to pursue him through the courts and called Blair “the world’s worst terrorist” and slammed him for not “looking us in the eye” as the report was released.
Unveiling his 2.6 million-word report into the UK’s most controversial military engagement since the end of the Second World War, Sir John said:
“We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.
“We have also concluded that the judgments about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – WMD – were presented with a certainty that was not justified.
“Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were under-estimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate. The government failed to achieve its stated objectives.”
Among the main conclusions in the 2.6 million word report are: There was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein in March 2003 and Blair took us to war “before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted”. Sir John said: “Military action at that time was not a last resort.
Blair, his then foreign secretary Jack Straw and the government presented judgments about intelligence on the threat posed by Iraq’s WMD with a “certainty that was not justified.”
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith only agreed that the invasion would be legal based on assurances from Blair that Iraq had committed “material breaches” of UN resolution 1441. But the inquiry said it was “unclear” what evidence Blair had for this and branded the process “far from satisfactory”.
Blair, who has been frequently criticised for his “sofa government” style, repeatedly failed to involve his whole Cabinet in key decisions.
The inquiry dismissed the ex-PM claims that he could not have known how difficult the post-invasion situation would be.
The government were aware that the US had “inadequate” plans for stabilising Iraq but had little influence over key decisions such as dismantling Hussein’s Ba’ath party and security services.
The Ministry of Defence was slow to respond to the threat from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and delays in providing more heavily armoured patrol vehicles for personnel were “intolerable”.
The “most consistent strategic objective” in Iraq was to reduce the number of troops it had deployed there, particularly after operations in Afghanistan became more intense.
One symptom of the failures was that UK forces had to strike a “humiliating” deal with militia in Basra to swap prisoners in return for an end to deadly attacks on soldiers. Tony Blair has said that his decision to take military action against Saddam Hussain was taken “in good faith and in what I believed to be the best interests of the country”. – Daily Mail
Online Reporter