Yesterday, the Chilcot report was published after seven years, £100million and interviews with over 100 witnesses.
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Howard has said he does not regret his decision for Australia to enter the 2003 Iraqi War, despite the Chilcot Report’s damning response to the USA -led invasion.
‘Could you imagine the woebetidings of Howard and the Liberal Party, had it been Hawke or I who had committed Australia to such an un-mandated assault on another country?’ Mr Keating said.
“What we did in removing Saddam had bad consequences which we didn’t foresee – and I understand all the criticisms – but when I look at it today I think still that we moved with where the grain of the future is going to be in these countries and this region”.
“The Americans weren’t genuine about it – but the prime minister was genuine about it – because he thought there was a chance that Saddam could be made to back down before we had to use military force”.
But he was withering about Blair’s choice to sign up to a military plan drawn up in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 by the U.S. president, George W Bush, and his neo-con team.
Howard said he regretted the loss of life in military conflict, but was willing to be held accountable for what occurred in the Iraq war.
“But what is true, is we were giving the USA a very clear commitment that we were going to be alongside them in dealing with this issue”.
“It was previously discussed by my national security adviser with authorities in London 10 days before it was issued – he received no objections”, he added. “They were not challenged, and they should have been”, he said.
“We are not going to examine it, we are not going to try to make an analysis of it or make judgement of the findings one way or another”, a spokesman said.
He argued that many more people had died in Syria than in Iraq “when we didn’t intervene and remove the dictator”.
In a two-hour press conference after the report was released, Blair accepted responsibility for the decision and expressed his deep sorrow to those who lost family members.
He acknowledges mistakes were made and says he has “more regret than anyone will ever know”.
But he insisted he could look the families in the eye – and the nation – and state that he did not mislead anyone over the invasion, the service personnel did not die in vain, and he was right to do what he did. By 2009, when British combat forces left Iraq, 179 British troops had been killed and almost 4,500 American personnel had lost their lives.
He said all options were being considered, including asking those responsible for the failures identified in the report to “answer for their actions in the courts if such process is found to be viable”.
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Speaking at a news conference after the release of the Chilcot report, Blair once again said his decision to involve the United Kingdom in the invasion was “right”, noting that he did not agree with the idea that those who died or were injured in Iraq “made their sacrifice in vain” as they had played their part in “the defining global security struggle of the 21st century against the terrorism and violence which the world over destroys lives, divides communities”.
