“I will take it up with whoever is the next Prime Minister”, Wilkie told media in Melbourne. There are many today who feel that the death of more than 200 soldiers in Iraq could have – and should have – been prevented.
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The UK joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to oust dictator Saddam Hussein was not used as a “last resort” and was based on “flawed intelligence”, an inquiry into the war said on 6 July in a damning indictment of the then prime minister Tony Blair’s decision to go to war.
“At the particular time we made those comments, we were like the rest of the world, trusting of the information that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and if that was the case, we believed that presented a very real threat to a great many people”.
In his first interview after the inquiry was published, Blair said that “no decision to go to war had been taken” after a key piece of evidence showed a memo from Blair to President George W. Bush that began “I will be with you, whatever”. It has been suggested that he felt invincible, having brokered the Good Friday Agreement here and after successes in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. However, the report says that was misguided and there was no imminent threat at the time of the invasion.
Milngavie and Bearsden MSP’s have responded to the long awaited findings of the the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War.
‘In the years that have gone by there’s been this constant claim that we went to war based on a lie, ‘ Mr Howard said in Sydney on Thursday.
On Wednesday in London, following a seven-year investigation, Sir John Chilcot unveiled his verdict on the actions of then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s that led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by a US-led military coalition. Like many who serve in the highest office it is their failures, rather than their successes, which are remembered.
“People want me to go one step further – and this is my problem, I know it causes a lot of difficulty – they say “no, we want you to apologise for the decision” and I can’t do that”.
Without naming Blair, he said Parliament had been misled at the time and should “deal with” those responsible.
Blair paid tribute to British Armed Forces, saying: “I will express my profound regret at the loss of life and the grief it has caused the families, and I will set out the lessons I believe future leaders can learn from my experience”.
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“The New Zealand Government’s got a pretty clear track record – we’ve been in office for about eight years now, I think we have given a lot of weight to New Zealand’s independent foreign policy and we’ve obviously garnered the respect of other countries who were good enough to elect us to the Security Council”.
