Chilcot Report on Iraq War

John Chilcot unveiled his 2.6 million-word report into Britain's involvement in the controversial Iraq War.
Highlights of the report:

• There was “no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein” in March 2003 and military action was “not a last resort”
• The UK “chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted”
• Judgements about the threat posed by Iraq’s WMD(Weapons of mass destruction) “were presented with a certainty that was not justified”
• Ministry of Defence was “slow” to react to clear need for better equipment and it was not clear whose job it was to do so
• Planning for post-war Iraq was “wholly inadequate”
• The legality of the war can only be decided by an international court
• The legal basis for military action was “far from satisfactory”. In taking this action the U.K. “undermined the authority of the United Nations Security Council.”
• Planning and preparations for the post-Saddam period were “wholly inadequate,” the report states. The U.K. government “failed to achieve the stated objectives it had set itself in Iraq.”

Analysis:

• Tens of thousands of Iraqis died during the conflict and the brutal sectarian war that followed, while 179 British soldiers also lost their lives. The invasion was controversial at the time as it did not have explicit approval from the UN Security Council, while claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction proved unfounded.
• Many, including veterans of the war and families of the soldiers who died in Iraq, alongside organizations like Stop the War and Greenpeace, are calling for the report to be a first step in legal and political action against former PM Tony Blair. The International Criminal Court is also looking at the Chilcot Report to see if its prosecutors find grounds to charge Blair on. And although the former PM cannot be charged with a war crime in the UK, he could be accused of misleading parliament, which is a prosecutable offense.
• The Iraq Inquiry is not a court and was not set up to make a legal case against Mr. Blair and individuals in his government who took wrong decisions that led to such disastrous consequences. But the painful reality of life after an unjust war is an experience that Iraq’s people suffer every day. There is no justice that can undo what military action conducted on false premises against their country in 2003 has wrought.

By: Vishal