Scottish First Minister condemns Iraq war as ‘gross deception

The Scottish First Minister slams those members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs) who voted for U.S.-led invasion of Iraq 10 years back today, saying that their votes cost many lives.

During a session in parliament, Alex Salmond addressed those MSPs who backed the war on Iraq, telling Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald that “people died because of his votes in this Parliament”.
Salmond’s remarks came as MSPs passed a symbolic motion condemning the 2003 invasion. Today, 10 years ago, the Scottish Parliament narrowly endorsed then-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to go to war.
The First Minister described the Iraq war as a disgrace without parallel in modern times because the claims that Saddam [the executed Iraqi dictator] had and could rapidly deploy weapons of mass destruction came out to be false. He said ‘Britain went into an illegal war on the basis of a gigantic fraud and a gross deception.
He said a number of Labour politicians had since “recanted”.
Salmond added: “I hope Johann Lamont and the remaining 23 members in this Parliament of 129, who for one reason or another were misled into supporting an illegal conflict with incalculable consequences, at some stage, perhaps in voting for the motion today, will find within themselves the courage and integrity and admit that mistake to the Scottish people.”
The symbolic motion condemned the invasion as a “reckless, illegal military conflict with incalculable human and material costs”.