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Tony Blair had a haunted look as he spoke shortly after the release of the Chilcot report. His voice broke, and there were tears in his eyes as he spoke of his remorse and sorrow over the British, Iraqi and allied lives lost and ruined in the Iraq war and its aftermath. In fact, you almost felt sorry for the man until you realised that he had stopped short of apologising for taking his country to war in the first place.
The discredited ex-prime minister addressed a press conference for some two hours, taking a wide range of hostile questions, and reminded us what a consummate performer he is, and why he won three general elections. But despite his polished performance, he reverted to his ultimate defence: he had acted in Britain’s best interests; he had not lied to the British people; the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein; and, faced with the same circumstances, he would take the same decision again.
Small wonder that his reputation is in tatters. The Chilcot report, widely expected to be a whitewash, surprised many with its devastating analysis of the many errors of omission and commission in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the massive bungling that followed. From the intelligence failures to the lack of UN endorsement, and from the poor quality of military kit to the devastation caused to Iraqi society, the report covers enormous areas of incompetence.
But above all, Blair’s open-ended commitment to Bush long before the invasion was launched is laid bare. In a secret memo to the US president, Blair began by writing: “I will be with you, whatever.” This confirmed the widely held view that long before parliamentary authorisation, Britain had been secretly committed to the war by its leader.
The pretext for the war was the alleged Iraqi WMD programme. But as the Chilcot enquiry makes clear, the intelligence on the matter was equivocal, and should have been challenged by Blair and his cabinet colleagues. In any case, there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein to Britain, and as Sir John Chilcot observed, war should be the last resort after all diplomatic options have been exhausted. This was clearly not the case in Iraq when Bush and Blair made it the first and only option.
The Chilcot enquiry was set up in 2009 by Gordon Brown when he was PM, and was supposed to take a year to complete. Now, seven years and ten million pounds later, its vast 2.6 million- word report is a model of detailed forensic examination of documents and witnesses. Many had thought the gently spoken, retired 76-year-old civil servant would shield the intelligence officials, bureaucrats, politicians and generals responsible for the fiasco. But many reputations have forever been tarnished, and there is talk about filing a civil suit in the courts against Blair for taking the country to war without sufficient grounds.
The families of British soldiers killed in the war have long awaited the Chilcot report, and now feel that Blair, the man they hold responsible for their pain, should be made accountable for his actions. One grieving mother called Blair “the world’s worst terrorist”. Clearly, she had not been satisfied by Blair’s expression of remorse. Other parents and family members are exploring their legal options.
While Iraq’s non-existent WMDs were the ostensible reason for the war, the Chilcot report makes it clear that the real cause was regime change. Hans Blix, head of the 700 UN inspectors who scoured Iraq for WMDs, writes in the Guardian:
“I am still not sure whether the existence of weapons of mass destruction was the primary motive for the military action. Perhaps regime change — the removal of Saddam Hussein, who was seen by Bush and Blair as part of the evil that had led to 9/11 — was the dominant motive…”
But as Chilcot makes clear, there was no presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq before the US-led invasion. In fact, it was the complete dismantlement of the Iraqi state that gave the terrorist group the space to set up its Iraqi affiliate. This later morphed into the Al Nusra Front and the militant Islamic State group in Syria. The rest is history.
The release of the report came at a time of unprecedented political upheaval in Britain. Following Brexit, David Cameron resigned, triggering a divisive Conservative Party election for his successor. In the opposition Labour Party, there was an attempted coup against Jeremy Corbyn mounted by the vast majority of the party’s MPs. And the UK Independence Party’s charismatic leader, Nigel Farage, has also resigned after achieving his lifetime goal of Brexit. But such was the impact of the Chilcot report that all these major political events were pushed to the inside pages.
And yet, despite the introspection caused by the enquiry, the suffering in Iraq continues unabated. The recent devastating bombing of a shopping mall in Baghdad in which over 250 were killed underlines the extent to which the country is vulnerable to terrorism. Thirteen years after the invasion, Iraq’s journey into chaos continues unchecked.
While the Chilcot enquiry report will not provide any balm for Iraq’s wounds, it will probably act as a check on future interventions. Its deterrent impact will be more effective if any of the actors are taken to court and found guilty. But even the shredded reputations will serve as a warning to future adventurers.
But it is Blair who will forever be remembered as the man most responsible for Britain’s worst foreign policy disaster since the Suez Canal fiasco of 1956. For such an ambitious politician who craved a place among successful leaders, and who drew such obvious delight in rubbing shoulders with the rich and the powerful, his downfall should serve as a reminder of the price of hubris.
Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2016
