He described the decision to go to war as the “hardest, most momentous, most agonising decision” he’d had to take in his ten years as British Prime Minister.
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The report concluded that the Iraqi government under then-president Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat at the time of the invasion.
The long-awaited report by the Iraq Inquiry Committee, led by Mr John Chilcot, takes up 12 volumes covering 2.6 million words and took seven years to complete, longer than Britain’s combat operations in Iraq. He referenced the recent suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, that left more than 250 people dead.
The Chilcot Report said the invasion started “before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted”. “Military action at that time was not a last resort”, the former senior civil servant told reporters.
The chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, has delivered a damning indictment of British policy.
“In the face of the Chilcot Report, John Howard should atone for his actions and those of his government”.
Commenting on words exchanged between Blair and Bush at Camp David, US later that year, the Chilcot report adds: “Although at that stage no decision had been taken on which military package might be offered to the US for planning purposes, Mr. Blair also told President Bush that, if it came to war, the United Kingdom would take a significant military role”.
While Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott said that Mr Blair’s reputation had “bled to death in the sands of Iraq”. The claim was crucial in persuading a majority of British lawmakers to endorse the country’s participation in toppling Saddam Hussein.
On Wednesday, Blair took responsibility for taking Britain into war, expressing “more sorrow, regret and apology that you can ever know or believe”.
Former Iraqi leader and Dictator Saddam Hussein was nearly immediately toppled, yet the aftermath saw tens of thousands of innocent civilians and hundreds of troops, including two Australians, killed.
The former PM said despite the “terrible consequences”, removing Saddam Hussein “moved with the grain” of what was to come in the region.
Then Prime Minister Helen Clark resisted the call to join the invasion, instead sending 60 engineers to help rebuild the country and support the United Nations.
Blair faced hostile questioning from national and global media, who said his assurances to former US President George Bush had amounted to a “blank cheque for war” and that he had abandoned diplomatic channels too easily.
“What I can not do and will not do, is say I believe we took the wrong decision”.
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The inquiry found Blair had been warned the invasion could lead to instability and a greater threat from Al-Qaeda, among other things.
