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WILL TONY BLAIR be accused of war crimes? Was evidence against Saddam Hussein ‘sexed up’? Was the British public lied to? What can be learnt from the course of the Iraq War?
These are the questions that are set to be answered as the seven-year, £10 million (€11.9 million) Iraq Inquiry is finally published today.
Led by veteran UK civil servant John Chilcot, today’s published report runs to 2.6 million words. To put that in context, the entire Harry Potter series is about 1 million words.
Even though it’s been running for seven years, the timeline it is examining is even longer. The period being looked at runs from the summer of 2001, when a potential invasion was being publicly discussed, up to July 2009 when British troops left Iraq.
The number of deaths resulting from the conflict is widely disputed, but the independent Iraq Body Count project puts the number of violent deaths at 251,000.
The vast majority of these deaths, close to 180,000, are classified as civilian casualties.
In total, 179 British soldiers also lost their lives in the conflict with many relatives hoping that Chilcot will provide them with answers about why their family members died.
The invasion was controversial at the time as it did not have explicit approval from the UN Security Council. Claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were later proven unfounded.
Although he stepped down as UK Prime Minister in 2007, Blair remains reviled by much of Britain for the conflict, which is viewed as at best misguided and at worst a war crime.
A 2004 official report into the intelligence case found he exaggerated the evidence when he presented it to MPs, although author Robin Butler said on Monday that Blair “really believed” what he was doing was right.
In recent years, Blair has expressed regret about the extremism the Iraq War caused but has repeatedly said that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.
Other than this, Blair has not commented on the report or possible ramifications for himself personally.
(Click here if you can’t play the video)
The Chilcot inquiry was not asked to rule on the legality of the invasion, but leaks suggest Blair will be heavily criticised over the decision-making process.
His critics are already lining up against him, with former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond even gathering cross-party support for an impeachment or possible legal challenge.
Lawyers representing relatives of 29 British troops that died said they would scrutinise the report for evidence of neglect of duty or misconduct in public office.
This could form the basis of legal action against Blair, his ministers or the government in general.
The International Criminal Court, which was petitioned at the time to examine possible evidence of war crimes, said on Monday that it will consider the report for a possible investigation.
The court, however, only tries war crimes that took place on the battlefield and does not question the legality of a war.
It means that, whatever Chilcot finds, Blair will not be brought before a war crimes tribunal.
‘Coffins on wheels’
The inquiry was meant to take a year but took seven, longer than the war itself, and was delayed by wrangling over what could be published.
This included correspondence between Blair and the US president George W. Bush, as well as the need to give key figures prior warning.
Detail about discussions between Bush and Blair are expected to be looked at in the report. Blair has previously denied that he had agreed with Bush at the president’s ranch in 2001 that they would overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Blair claims that they discussed the need to confront the Iraqi dictator but did not deal in specifics.
The final report will be published today and will go live on The Iraq Inquiry website once Chilcot concludes his public statement later this morning.
With reporting by © – AFP 2016
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Le pen will be lucky to end up with 30% on may 7. Hopefully this spells a turning point and the end of populist politics (left and right) in favour of realism and pragmatism.
@Matt Connolly: and Trump won’t run for president, let alone get the Republican nomination, and certainly wouldn’t beat Hillary in the actual election.
@Matt Connolly: I don’t think Le Pen will win, but she will certainly achieve much higher than 30% of the vote.
@Matt Connolly: The socialist base will go with Macron, the Republican voters will split. So my guess would be that Macron gets something like 55% of all the voters who voted in this round. With Le Pen getting 45% or so.
But there will be new voters, ones who didn’t vote in this round. These new voters are hard to predict and it’s possible they could shift the victory to Le Pen.
It’s going to be very close.
@Michael Donnelly: Trump and the likes of Farage have had their day. Playing on people’s fears and trying to divide people in order to push what they believe. Shame on them
@Tom Kelly: Shaming people politically has had its day.
“Hopefully this spells a turning point and the end of populist politics (left and right) in favour of realism and pragmatism.” – and then we all will convert to Islam hopefully.
@Matt Connolly: Pretty much every politician in history was a populist. Go look up the meaning of the word.
Macron:ex Rothschild banker,wants a closer European Union with Germany,keep immigration coming into France. Let pen: pulls out of Europe collapses euro takes it country back.your choice France
@dick dastardly:
You make it sound like a negative wanting to work closer with the biggest economy in Europe. Populist, uninformed protest voting is such dangerous thing
@Nick Allen: Macron (in)famously said about the EU-Canada trade deal that individual nations should have no say as it would ‘weaken’ the EU. He’s a man who believes in giving total sovereign control of France over to the EU. A vote for Macron could be a vote to sign away France as an independent nation according to his own words.
@Jason Culligan:
Macron is very much an idealist from a financial perspective. He wants strength in numbers to support a larger economy. Still doesn’t make working closer with Germany a bad thing
@Jason Culligan: So you’re against peace and prosperity in Europe, you’d like more wars and the last two weren’t enough?
@Nick Allen: So he not be working with the whole of the EU rather than just stronger ties with Germany . Germany the country that runs the EU ? The way you talk about the EU you would think it was perfect and does not need big reform .
Markets would much prefer spreading there risk across all independent nations that are currently locked into a political ponzi scheme. Which by all historical accounts will eventually run its course as most money unions do. More so given that the Greece/ Italy debacle has gone spookily quiet for now.. This summer is going to be interesting.
@Martin Critten: isolationism works bro……… …… …
@Martin Critten:
Sounds like you just got some buzz words and put them together for your comment, it is meaningless rubbish.
@Martin Critten: their
@Robert Rusk: Correcting his spelling mistakes doesn’t make his comment make any more sense
Opinion polls mean nothing. They are not reliable. All this optimism that he is guaranteed to win tells us that many, especially the media, haven’t learned the lessons of the recent US election. The media here are trying to guide public opinion to vote one way. The French electorate may end up giving us all a surprise (or shock) on election day. The result of the election is the only true opinion poll. We shall have to wait & see. This will be an interesting campaign.
@Declan Carroll: The polls called the first round pretty accurately. Why should the second round be any different.
Sad to watch this. 2 Muppets for the price of 1. Macron is the pure product of the system.he hasn’t won yet. A lot of melanchon and Fillion supporter will vote le pen or go fishing on the day.
@Frantz Harband: A lot of wishful thinking there. Macron will hoover up voters from the 9 other candidates. Le Pen will only pick a few more disillusioned voters but she won’t expand her support much more than has already voted for her. Those that voted for the others in the first round the vast majority will vote for anyone but Le Pen.
@Frantz Harband: Marcon is just like our lovely Enda – if people don’t know who they want to vote for, they vote for them. Then complain next couple of years how terrible government they have…
Keep going Le Pen
Get rid of this corrupt EU
Which is for the elite and rich only
Surges at a Rothchild ex employee getting through, I wonder why lol.
@Alois Irlmaier: You seem to be obsessed with his previous employment. Why don’t you just come out and say what you really think instead of attempting to imply something sinister about Macron.
@Mick Jordan: He is Merkels lap dog.
Macron looks like having a slightly better chance than Le Pen but it will be close.
The EU needs to learn from its many mistakes and to ensure that it does not feed the rise of extreme Nationalism.
What’s irelands plan she wins?
#LePenEconomics
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