[Peace-discuss] Blair took Britain to an illegal and disastrous war on false pretenses

[C. G. Estabrook]

	UK paper questions Iraq war timing

Leaked British government documents have called into question former premier 
Tony Blair's public statements on the buildup to the Iraq war.

The UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper published details of private statements made 
by senior British military figures that show plans for the US-led 2003 invasion 
were being made more than a year earlier than Blair said.

General Graeme Lamb, then head of Britain's special forces, was quoted as saying 
he had been "working the war up since early 2002," according to the newspaper.

The paper also claims to have documents that show plans were so badly drafted 
they left troops poorly equipped and ill-prepared for the conflict.

The documents themselves - transcripts of interviews from an internal defence 
ministry review of the conflict - disclose that some planning for the Iraq war 
had begun in February 2002.

Controversial

In July 2002, Blair told lawmakers at a House of Commons committee session that 
there were no preparations to invade Iraq.

Critics of the war have long insisted that Blair offered then-President George 
Bush an assurance as early as mid-2002 -before British lawmakers voted in 2003 
to approve UK involvement - that Britain would join the war.
The leaked documents are likely to be supplied to a public inquiry established 
by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to scrutinize prewar intelligence and postwar 
planning, and which will hold its first evidence sessions later this week.

Brown appointed ex-civil servant John Chilcot to lead the panel, which will call 
Blair and the current and former heads of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency - 
John Sawers and John Scarlett - to give testimony in person.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, military leaders used the defense ministry 
review to criticize government departments over their failure to plan for 
reconstruction work once Saddam Hussein had been deposed.

"We got absolutely no advice whatsoever. The lack of involvement by the FCO 
(Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office), the Home Office and the Department 
for International Development was appalling," the newspaper quoted Brigadier 
Bill Moore as saying in his statement.

The newspaper said the internal review concludes that a swift military victory 
was won only because Iraq's forces were so poor. "A more capable enemy would 
probably have punished (our) shortcomings severely," it quotes a document as saying.

Reaction

Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, said the revelations 
prove Blair took Britain to "an illegal and disastrous war on false pretences".

"Tony Blair consistently denied to Parliament and public that the UK government 
was preparing for war in Iraq, yet these documents show that planning began as 
far back as 2002,"

The defence ministry declined to comment Sunday on the leaked documents, but 
said it "recognizes the importance of identifying and learning lessons from 
operations."

Two previous British studies into the war have been carried out .

One cleared the government of blame for the death of David Kelly, a government 
weapons scientist who killed himself in 2003 after he was exposed as the source 
of a BBC report that accused Blair's office of "sexing up" prewar intelligence.

A separate 2004 inquiry — which Chilcot took part in — into intelligence on Iraq 
also cleared Blair's government, but criticized spy agencies for relying on 
seriously flawed or unreliable sources.

Findings of the new inquiry will not be published before next summer, meaning 
the conclusions won't be known before Britain's next national election, which 
Brown must hold by June 2010.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/11/20091122181442633120.html