The decision to go to war was “the hardest, most momentous, most agonizing decision I took in 10 years as British prime minister”, he said. Chilcot complained that in Blair’s time the risks of military action were never properly identified or exposed to ministers.
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The report states that his objective was to “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”.
Now Britain’s long-overdue Iraq Inquiry – known as the Chilcot Report, since it was headed by British Privy Counsellor John Chilcot – has been released, rehashing Bush’s greatest fiasco as president: his decision to invade Iraq based on faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction – as well as false claims linking Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The inquiry also found military planning for the war and its aftermath were not up to the task.
Former prime minister John Howard says there were errors in the intelligence which led to Australia’s role in the 2003 Iraq war, but he stands by the decision to join the conflict.
Chilcot heard from 150 witnesses and analyzed 150,000 documents.
It has been revealed that months before the US-UK allied invasion, in July 2002, Blair wrote to then-US President George Bush promising him that the UK would be there with him ” whatever”. “An investigation has concluded there was ‘no imminent threat” by Saddam Hussein when Prime Minister Blair made a decision to invade, alongside the U.S.
Iraq descended into sectarian strife after the occupiers dismantled Saddam ‘s government and military apparatus, unleashing chaos that helped give rise to the Islamic State group.
The report found failings by British military chiefs who did not provide adequate equipment to its forces. As the report makes clear, there were no lies. I was hoping that this (the Chilcot Report) would bring us closure.
Mr Howard said Hussein had a long-term goal to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction program once the threat of sanctions disappeared.
They fought to overthrow then President Saddam Hussein based largely on a claim he possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Retired civil servant Chilcot said his report was “an account of an intervention which went badly wrong, with consequences to this day”. In Parliament, a quarter of Blair’s Labour Party voted against him.
CNN reports that Blair also held a news conference to respond to the report.
Blair insisted that he had provided no “blank check” to Washington, and the note quickly moved to an assessment of the many difficulties of such a war, including building a political coalition to back it and the “need to commit to Iraq for the long term”. In one, Blair told Bush, “I will be with you, whatever”. It concludes he was one of the worst US presidents ever.
Mr Wilkie also said he would like to see Mr Howard and then-United States President George W Bush stand trial in an worldwide court as those who accused the former leaders of “war crimes” had “a compelling case”. “Sadly, neither was the case in relation to the U.K. Government’s actions in Iraq”.
The Iraq war was a disaster for the United Kingdom in every sense, with 179 British troops and at least 150,000 Iraqis killed.
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John Kirby, a spokesman for Secretary of State John Kerry, said the current administration is focused on the current crises in Iraq and Syria. Chilcot says “the people of Iraq have suffered greatly”.
