[Peace-discuss] Excellent critique of the Chilcot Report, by Jeremy Corbin

[Karen Aram]

"Mr Speaker, the decision to invade and occupy Iraq in March 2003 was the most significant foreign policy decision taken by a British government in modern times.

It divided this House and set the government of the day against a majority of the British people as well as against the weight of global opinion.

The war was not in any way as Sir John Chilcot says a "last resort".

...

Frankly, it was an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext as the inquiry accepts and has long been regarded as illegal by the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion.

It led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions of refugees.

It devastated Iraq's infrastructure and society.

The occupation fostered a lethal sectarianism - as the report makes clear - that turned into a civil war. Instead of protecting security at home or abroad, the war fuelled and spread terrorism across the region.

Sunday's suicide bomb attack in Baghdad which killed over 250 people, the deadliest so far, was carried out by a group whose origins lie in the aftermath of the invasion.

By any measure, the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been for many a catastrophe." Jeremy Corbyn today, in the House of Commons.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160706/c6c0809c/attachment-0003.html>