The war in Afghanistan always seemed legitimate - the regime was a legal target, sanctioned by the UN, as they harboured terrorists. Iraq, however, was an entirely different kettle of fish. And as the country seems deeply divided over its legitimacy and the agenda afoot at the time, it comes as a frustrating yet entirely predictable 'surprise' that Jack Straw has vetoed the publication of minutes of Cabinet meetings leading up to the decision to go to war in 2003.
I don't know about you, but that makes me even more suspicious that the last reason that was on Tony Blair and his Cabinet's minds were Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Information And Government
We have fought long and hard to get more access to information but I do agree with Jack Straw's sentiments that there is always a balance to be had. There are some things which need to be kept out of the public's eye in case they jeopardise lives or the safety of our forces.
However, 6 years on and one Prime Minister down, there comes a time when people's minds need to be put at rest. What were the real reasons for the decision to support the USA and invade Iraq? At the time, the UN resolution governing it did not give a clear mandate - only if WMD were found could it have legitimised our actions. Hans Blix and his team of weapons inspectors pleaded with George Bush and Tony Blair for more time as he found nothing suspicious in Iraq. Lots of disinformation claimed Blix was being taken for a ride by his Iraqi hosts but we were later to learn that indeed there were no WMD or vast underground Chemical Warfare Laboratories let alone anything that could be turned against UK sovereign territory in just 45 minutes as the Intelligence Report published to the public confidently predicted.
It was subsequently found that the Intelligence Report which purportedly came via the desk of John Scarlett, the Joint Chief of Intelligence, was in fact a work of fiction with parts of it plagiarised from a thesis by a student which he had written some time before.
The hand and influence of Alistair Campbell was felt everywhere and there were even rumours that he had chaired meetings of the Intelligence forces as if he had Ministerial powers.
The David Kelly Affair
Then Andrew Gilligan got into hot water when he exposed the document of having being 'sexed up'. The source of this claim was apparently a Defence Adviser, Dr. David Kelly. All hell broke loose as it was tantamount to accusing Campbell himself of 'sexing up' the document in order to strengthen a weak case for going to war. In the events that followed, David Kelly tragically took his own life with his own blunt penknife, Gilligan and the BBC got slaughtered and Campbell burst in on Channel Four news and demanded to be put on prime time TV, got his way and damned everyone in his path. The whole affair had the edgy feel of an Orwellian novel and that the propaganda-ists were running the country. The subsequent Hutton Report into the Kelly Affair found that there was nothing unusual at all about the whole thing and that the Government were heroes.
Explanations Needed
I certainly am one of those people who feels owed an explanation by the Government. It is one thing supporting the USA but it is another blindly following and risking the lives of our troops in a cause that was questionable. The reasons subsequently alluded to was that Saddam Hussein was a bad man and therefore it was justifiable on those grounds alone.
That might ring true had it been the explanation given in the first place but, of course, that had no mandate at the UN.
The fact is no matter how much we or others may dislike say Gordon Brown that is no reason for anyone else to invade us. There are many political leaders and regimes around this world who are nasty to their people and other nations and we do not seem to do much against them except occasionally posture or impose some sanctions. Robert Mugabe springs to mind as a prime example of someone who is clearly off his trolley and a danger to his people and us, yet nothing is done. You could argue the rest of the African Nations may not like it but if you had polled many people in the Arabic Middle East, Saddam Hussein was a cult hero.
Saddam, by all estimates, was a spent force. Hemmed into his own country, he was more a danger to his people than us. And we had our opportunity to depose him in the first Gulf War but International Law was clear then on our mandate no matter how much a bad person we thought he was. So why the change?
Bush And His Legacy
I have said before that I think the Blair-Bush years are ones of missed opportunity. I think Bush in particular got blinded by vengeance in the first instance and then used the smokescreen of a wounded America to solve some old problems related to oil. It has been a gross miscalculation of a very complex situation. Two wars fought in two distant countries have opened up two fronts where anyone with a gripe against the West can hone their fighting skills and score a few points for their Cause, whatever that may be. Afghanistan is a country that has variously been invaded but never conquered and the reasons remain the same. Conveniently, Osama bin Ladin, remains at large, sneering at us from his retreats, communicating freely with his network of operatives, we are told, in a world where the security forces have direct access to all our communication methods and bank details and have satellites that can see the hair on the backs of our hands.
Iraq has been the bigger of the miscalculations in that it was easy getting in and overthrowing Saddam but then you have the rattlers nest of all the various factions who want their Iraq not one built by former disgraced telecoms companies, big contractors on the make and having McDonalds' franchises in every town. The depth of feeling in the Country was supposedly felt when Saddam's statue was pulled down, but as with 'Shock and Awe' it had nothing to do with conquering a proud people.
Where Does It Leave Us
It circles back to the point of the blog. Somewhere, someone knew something that made this all worthwhile, that gave Tony Blair the 'Pure Heart' in God's eyes as Cherie put in her memoirs to sanction the invasion. We have waited a long time to find out what awesome knowledge or terrible secret that has been such a burden to that Cabinet that surely they would want to get off their chests and share the burden of the big responsibility with the people who put them in power.
Or is it that the reasons were not there as given to us before and that there was a completely different agenda - one that would never have stood up in International Law? We may never know.
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