Iraq war probe, no lessons learnt

The Iraq War Inquiry has failed to “identify lessons that can be learned from the Iraq conflict,” says a motto based on which the inquiry was established.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who was the co-mastermind behind the war has been grilled for the second time before the Chilcot Inquiry, created by his successor Gordon Brown.

Blair made all the crucial decisions that led Britain to become the second-biggest contributor of troops to the US-led invasion of Iraq under the then US President George W. Bush.

Tony Blair’s grilling has revolved around intelligence failures, political procedures and his blind following of Bush’s command.

The inquiry was created to shed light on those areas of failure, but Blair insisted that they invaded Iraq not just because of intelligence findings at the time that made it necessary, but also because it followed Britain’s normal international portfolio.

The UK and the US intelligence agencies had provided at the time information on the then Iraqi regime under executed dictator Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMDs) and his support for terrorist groups including al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, all proved to be wrong and baseless.

However, Tony Blair, at his second appearance before the inquiry, again defended his previous remarks in which he had insisted that he did not regret the invasion of Iraq.

The former prime minister, however, said it was never “my meaning or my intention” to suggest that he did not regret the loss of life in the conflict and its aftermath.

“I wanted to make it clear that, of course, I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life, whether from our own armed forces, those of other nations, the civilians who helped people in Iraq or the Iraqis themselves,” he said.

His voice of regret for the loss of life was faced with angry cries of “too late” from the protesters who had lost their loved ones in the conflict.

Blair was heckled by the mother of Scottish trooper who lost his life in the Iraq war.

“It’s six years too late for me. Why didn’t he meet me six years ago?” said Rose Gentle outside the inquiry venue.

“I basically just stood up and said to Tony Blair: your lies and your mistakes killed my son. You’re to blame for my son being killed,” she added.

Dozens of other anti-war protesters gathered outside the court to demonstrate their mounting outrage over Tony Blair’s decision to take Britain into an illegal conflict.