Furthermore, Chiclot said that Britain’s plans for managing the occupation of Iraq following the 2003 invasion were “wholly inadequate”. “They were not challenged, and they should have been”, he said.
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The report’s release has incited intense criticism of former British prime minister Tony Blair and his government, and offers a fascinating look into his relationship with then-president George W. Bush, who has largely avoided the official condemnation with which Blair spent much of Wednesday reckoning.
“The intelligence assessments made at the time of going to war turned out to be wrong”, Blair said.
Chilcot’s inquiry is the fifth, and by far the most complete, into Britain’s role in the war.
While some had anticipated a whitewash, the tome actually delivered a damning indictment of Blair’s decision to take the country to war and none of today’s (7 July) papers hold any punches. “They are always our best partner and we should work with them”.
In a presentation that was temperate in tone but pulled no punches, Sir Chilcot, in his time-line of the run-up to the declaration of the 2003 war and thereafter – including a summary of lessons learned from the disastrous policy decision – came to several important conclusions that have contested numerous claims made by Mr. Blair before the invasion.
The Chilcot investigation discovered that United Kingdom ministers didn’t receive conflict and post-conflict cost estimates before the country went to war, and that the government’s decision was not impacted by the potential cost of the military conflict.
But it became clear it would not be possible to persuade a majority to support a second resolution before the United States took military action.
“Despite the intelligence failures and other mistakes he has acknowledged previously, President Bush continues to believe the whole world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power”, Bush’s spokesman Freddy Ford said in a statement.
“I did it because I thought it was right and because I thought the human cost of inaction. would be greater for us and for the world in the longer term”, he said.
“The bottom line is that this Government doesn’t trade the lives of young New Zealanders for a war it doesn’t believe in”, she said at the time.
“I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you can ever know or believe”, he said, before seemingly backtracking.
But Mr Parris, now a columnist for The Times, stopped short of accusing Mr Blair of lying or deceiving the British public.
In six years, more than 150,000 civilians and 179 British soldiers died.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has said it will consider the report but has no investigation open. “In hindsight, obviously the information they had was wrong, but I don’t think we should be recreating history that somehow Saddam Hussein was a good guy, because he wasn’t”.
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – who voted against military action – apologised on behalf of the party.
