Well its taken a ridiculously long time, but tomorrow we finally get to find out the contents of the Chilcot Report


As someone who supported the Iraq War (for a whole bunch of reasons many of us have argued about in the past), I suspect this is going to be an uncomfortable 24hrs.


Let me be clear, I've never believed that Blair lies to parliament. I think he was so certain that WMD existed, and would be found within hours of the invasion, that he felt comfortable exaggerating the intel.


That said, if it transpires that he lied to us, and took the country to war on that basis, then I'm going to be at the front of the queue calling for retribution.

 

I supported the war, but have since gone on record as admitting I was wrong. Hindsight's 20:20.

 

I'm pretty sure that there are very few people who now believe it was right.

 

I think the time taken is obscene.


I believe that Blair gave Bush a pat on the back - was it Camp David - saying he would support him assuming that Parliament would push it through. In fact it looked closer that he planned and needed a bit of spin to get UK involvement approved. I seem to remember that he wouldn't wait for final in-country search for WMD.


After they hauled Saddam out of his rabbit haul it all began to go wrong. The B'aath Party was broken up although many B'aath members were employed on a few dollars a day for menial tasks which more or less kept the peace. It was the USA who stopped this practice which, IMO, really started the disintegration of the country. I wonder if Chilcot has picked this up.


But we'll see. Very upsetting for those that lost loved ones but the world has moved on.


David

 

A a project based on a falshoods, lies and deception

Relying on support from people who simply had no idea what the rammifications would be - nor could they in all honesty

Then an almost criminal lack of post event planning


Sounds about par for the course to me

 

So every one knows what happened already and no one can be prosecuted...?

As far as I can tell


Along with no lessons learnt

 

well, I was one who never supported the war...and will also be at the front asking for retribution should it come to that.

But are we REALLY confident it won't be yet another whitewash?

Parliamentarians seem to find ways to avoid any retribution.......

 

It'll be a wash over today. Blair will be exonerated of any wrong doing, and it'll be put down to dodgy intelligence.

Personally, I never backed us going into Iraq. The whole area has become far worse due to our and US intervention. ISIS has grew out of the ashes, and countless people has needlessly died.

Bush & Blair are no worse than Sadam Husain for invading Iraq, when he invaded Quait. Only as it turn out, Bush & Blair have made a bigger mess of it all.

Although Iraq was ruled by a tyrant and dictator, he did keep his people safe, they had a normal life, and he kept the area secure for his people. Now look at the place? I'm sure if you asked most Iraq people which they'd prefer, they want it to go back to the way it was.

 

I suspect he will be heavily criticised - and rightly so

"wrongdoing" - it is so difficult to prove and as Chilcot said this was not a court of law

 

Blair is so oiled up - he will slip , slide away from any consequences of his dodgy actions.

 

I was watching Channel 4 news last night and they interviewed the First admiral of the fleet (back then), who knew first hand that the Government already knew they were going into Iraq, way before WMD were ever mentioned. His exact words were, then knew they were going in, they just needed a good enough excuse to do it.

Thing is though, he admitted that information he knew about what was happening back then, could be seen as damning to Tony Blair. Only anything he knows about events back then will never be mentioned, as Chilcot (or anyone else) never bothered to interview him.

That's why I think Blair will be exonerated today, and people who actually knew what was going on back then, were not interviewed.

See no Evil, hear no Evil !!!

 

Yep 100%

And the tax payer will sort the bill for the whole palaver

 

But hasn't TB and GW already vetted this report last year which is why the release was delayed?

 

Like many who have commented so far, I agree that
a) it will be a watered report full of waffle and hearsay
b) scold blair but not go anywhere to actually lay the blame at his feet
c) we will end paying for this waste of time
d) no-one will assume the blame for ill-equipping the soldiers and sending so many of them out there to die

I at first thought it was a legitimate war but as time dragged on and the death toll mounted I could see that it was just full of lies and fabrications perpetuated by that slimy self serving utter **** Blair. I hold nothing but utter contempt for him and would like nothing more than to see him go down.

Sadly that will never happen and like so many of his kind will get away with murder

 

Ha ha does anyone really think he'll be judged, not a chance.

Nice idea but we all knew what the outcome would be before the inquiry even started.

Make Blair pay the "costs"

 

Blair's memo to Bush,
opening line "I will be with you, whatever"
Says it all. End of case.

 

Bollocks to you

 

anyone other than blair would be completely finished given the findings

 

Teflon Tony

 

I agree.

Apart from I never supported the war. The "spin" on the reasoning seemed implausible; And if it was plausible; why are we not warring with the likes of North Korea or Iran etc. based on similar reasoning?

Secondly, I have never trusted nor supported Blair before he was elected and since, so me opposing the war was a natural conclusion; It seemed almost everything he said and did had (and still does) has some form of ulterior motive or lacked foresight.

 

It is to my shame that I mocked Cook at the time; thank God I can point to the folly of youth in mitigation.

 

I heard Blair's news conference this afternoon

he sounds clinically insane

and good speech by cook I remember hearing it at the time

 

Is there any YouTube or sound recording on line to that, hodgy (or others)?

Been busy and still don't finish before 6:30pm or so, so that will be helpful.

 

Not sure TH, clips on the BBC, but his whole (self justification) statement lasted over 50 mins

I can summarise it though,


He is sorry that people are upset

 

Ok, thanks, Hodgy.

At least he's sorry, even when it may be a half-true one. If it were Gove, he wouldn't know what 'sorry' is; even a half-true one. Some are accidental psychopaths; due to their bending ways (Tony bent to Bush; Boris bent to power). Some are simply natural born psychopaths; like Gove.

All perfectly cut for Politics.

 

In my book, Tony Blair did two good things while in office.

1. He banned smoking in pubs and restaurants.

2. He stood down.

And that's it. Not bad for ten years as PM. When you look back, Sir John Major, Lord Prescott, Mr Blair. Clearly he's as well thought of in high places too.

 

You forgot to mention Blair's ironic role as a Middle East PEACE envoy

 

I spent 7 months in Iraq in 2003 on Op Telic 2, based in Basra. Now, I can't really shed any light on intelligence provided by whatever agencies / units that (apparantly) led to the initial invasion, I'm simply not qualified or in the know, but what I can wholeheartedly tell you is that the kit we recieved was, quite frankly, nowhere near up to the standard it should have been for such a hostile environment. ****** land-rovers that had literally no protection whatsoever, especially for the guy stood up in the back. Ill-fitting body armour, boots that melted (temperatures would reach 40-45 degrees no problem. Nice on holiday, not nice to work in) etc etc, the list is endless. Pre-deployment training was shocking, nowhere near the standard it was for Afghan. At the very least, people need to be held accountable for the shocking standard of kit supplied which was undoubtedly the direct cause of death for a certain number of personnel.

I also worked on the police station down in Majar Al-Kibir shortly after the 6 RMP's were killed. I can honestly say it's one of the worst places I've ever been to, and I've been to a fair few. Whoever sent just 6 of them, so poorly equipped, should be hung out to dry. Even at Squadron strength (about 100 odd people at the time), we were constantly being attacked, stoned whilst out and about in vehicles etc etc. A lot of people have a lot to answer for

 

Mr Corbyn looking very smart in the background (even wearing a tie !!)

 

Well I hope nobody now thinks that the report was a whitewash?


Pretty damning all round I'd say.