The Chilcot enquiry is largely redundant. We know the Blair government was lying to us- and we knew it at the time. It was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that there were no WMD in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 and that George Bush was just looking for excuses to launch a war he had already decided on.
It was also obvious that Tony Blair had decided to stick by the US president- whoever he was and whatever he chose to do- as a matter of primary principle. I understand why Britain would would want to keep on friendly terms with the USA but I have never accepted that this should manifest in a policy of "their country right or wrong". The Iraq war was an unjustified war and also- as events have demonstrated- a deeply stupid move. I suspect Blair's own insecurities had a lot to do with his decision; he's one of nature's side-kicks, a gang-member type- with a deep-seated need to cosy up to the cool and powerful- a trait that also accounts for his belated conversion to Roman Catholicism.
But demonising one man is a cop-out. Blair's colleagues went with him, and so did the British parliament. The opposition, God bless it, failed to oppose. It's not good enough for those who supported the war then to argue that they "believed" the leadership. I saw the same evidence they did- and I could see the leadership was spinning us a line.
The waves from that mistaken, arguably criminal decision continue to smack against the walls of our democracy . If British politicians are held in such low esteem- lower esteem than ever before- it's because we're going to be faced- again- this coming spring with voting in a gang of poltical hacks who supported the war or- how exciting!- a gang of political hacks who supported the war.
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