Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2015
The debate goes to the heart of one of the greatest issues to have faced the United Kingdom in modern times, for there can be no graver decision than that of whether to go to war—whether to place our young men and women in harm’s way.
The purpose of the Iraq inquiry was to shine a light on all the circumstances leading up to the Iraq invasion; to understand what lay behind the decisions that were taken; to assign responsibility for the mistakes that were made; to hold those who made them to account; and to learn the lessons for the future.
The First Minister quoted the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who said:
“The inquiry is essential because it will ensure that, by learning lessons, we strengthen the health of our democracy, our diplomacy and our military.”—[Official Report, House of Commons, 15 June 2009; Vol 494, c 23.]
Who today in the chamber or in the country can doubt that the UK’s democracy, diplomacy and military have been damaged by the decisions that were taken? Who now doubts that the trust between the UK Government and the people has been broken and that that trust has yet to be restored? Who can deny that the UK’s standing in the world has been diminished by the actions of its Government?
Weapons of mass destruction were the basis on which the case for war was predicated. Tony Blair told the House of Commons that Saddam’s
“weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing ... it is up and running now.”—[Official Report, House of Commons, 24 September 2002; Vol 21, c 3.]
That claim was not true. The UN weapons inspector Hans Blix referred to “weapons of mass disappearance”. He said:
“it was like surgery intended to remove something malignant finding that the malignancy was not there.”
The dossier, which was based on the findings of the Joint Intelligence Committee, contained a number of allegations, none of which have—to this day—been proven or substantiated. Among those allegations were claims that Iraq had an on-going nuclear programme; that WMD programmes were concealed and well funded; and that chemical and biological weapons could be deployed within 45 minutes. Those claims were echoed in the tabloids, which sensationalised the information and framed Iraq as a direct threat to the people of the United Kingdom. For example, The Sun had a headline proclaiming “Brits 45mins from Doom”. Yet, in his evidence to Chilcot, Major General Michael Laurie said:
“We knew at the time that the purpose of the dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence”,
which was
“sparse and inconclusive.”
The motion in the name of the First Minister quite rightly refers to the human casualties of the war, but it is now clear that a major casualty of the conflict was the truth itself.
Many believe—as Joan McAlpine mentioned earlier—that Blair was intent on war in order to bring about regime change, which is illegal under international law but which he and the neoconservative Administration in the White House wished—indeed, were determined—to bring about. Clare Short, who left the Blair Government over Iraq, said that Blair’s actions were an “honourable deception”, but millions of people throughout the world now believe that those actions were a deliberate deception, and a dishonourable one at that.
Only the publication of the Chilcot report will allow us to know the truth about what took place. The inquiry should publish its findings at the earliest opportunity; the families of the fallen and the people of this country expect and deserve no less.
14:44