So what is the Chilcot report and what are its implications?

[zabuzabu]

It's been investigating the Iraq war and it's going to say Tony should't have started it, is that right?

But Tony is no longer an MP and it's all a decade ago. So what exactly is going to happen as a result?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chilcot-report-iraq-war-alastair-campbell-cleared-sexed-up-dossier-tony-blair-spin-doctor-a7122571.html
So Campbell escapes Scot free

He's like one of those toys, that talks endlessly and monotonously when you pull a cord in its back, isn't he?

Same old self-justification.

He's just using smoke & mirrors over and over again.

"I ask you to think 'what if' ...."

Using the Arab Spring etc to justify his decisions with hindsight.

NOTHING AT ALL to do with the point - what happened in 2002 & 2003.

derxa thank-you for that link

I cannot believe what I'm hearing.

The war in Iraq was utterly shambolic

And there he is, wanting forgiveness with a lump in his throat and a tear in his eye

Alistair Campbell slinking away

There has to be justice for the soldiers families

He makes me ashamed to be British.

I can't actually bear to watch him answer these questions. He's angry now, apparently, we're all missing the point

I want him to be asked directly to justify the fact that he knowingly sent personnel out there without proper kit, with the armed forces disgustingly under resourced & underfunded.
For years.

It's like going back in time, with not only Blair but also spin-doctor Alistair Campbell.

He makes me ashamed to be British.

Why?
2 million matched to stop him but he ignored us

He and his cronies are to blame not the British people.

god he's such a spineless dickweasel, all that trembling bottom lip and "why oh why wont you believe me?"

He has no voice.

I'm getting cross with the journalists too actually.

He's not directly answering their questions, he reframes them and answers his own question, and they're not pulling him up on it at all - they're just giving him a platform to talk, not being rigorous enough at all.

I should have explained it better to those numpties in my Cabinet before I helped my old mate Bush to bomb Iraq into the Stone Age.
It had to be done though
Comment on Guardian website summarising Blair's actions.

There are moments here that I can see him trying to give an insight into the way government information/decisions work, and basically saying, "look, this was a tricky bloody time".
I can get that.

AFAICS the report is simply saying there were no WMD and Blair knew this before deciding to go to war.

I was part of that massive anti-war march too - I recall everyone knowing/saying at the time there were no WMD's. It was all a rouse.
I listened to Radio 4 every morning throughout the entire debacle and it seemed overwhelmingly clear that there were no WMD's.

Are we meant to be surprised now?

So now this report makes clear Tony Blair knew going to war in Iraq would increase terrorism (which it did) and it would destabilise the Middle East (which it has) do we finally get public support for taking refugees displaced by war and terrorism in or is that still not our problem?
^ absofuckinglutely!

I think it says more than that. Much of it is about how little preparation there was for a post-war Iraq, which we now know is what created the vacuum now filled by Daesh and other groups.

If the war had been started unreasonably but it had resulted in stable, peaceful democracy then ... well it wouldn't have been ok but it would have been better than what we have.

Lets not forget that Tony Blair has styled himself as a Middle Eastern 'adviser' in the last few years also....this man has no morals whatsoever.

"Much of it is about how little preparation there was for a post-war Iraq, which we now know is what created the vacuum now filled by Daesh and other groups."

That was widely commented on at the time too. Fgs, at least in colonial times when we invaded places it was to set them up within the colonial structure.

Indeed, Bungo.

I'm no expert but just know a little modern history, and watched in horror as they made classic mistakes.

Take the following ingredients:

1. Political purge (de-Ba'athification), where you sack everyone who has been a member of a particular party - in a country where being a member of that party was a prerequisite for having any responsible position in the first place. So you've now sacked and impoverished all the people who were making the country tick, most of whom were never genuine supporters of the party in the first place.

2. Imprisonment of political prisoners from this purge in camps together - creating a "University of Robben Island" effect of the sort which enabled the ANC to thrive, grow idealogically and form coherent practical plans in South Africa.

3. Including the army in the list of people ignored, unpaid, sacked and imprisoned. Iraqi army commanders rocked up to the Coalition immediately after the invasion and said, we have this many men, ready and at the service of their country, where do you want them? And were told to go away. Co-opting the army into the future of Iraq was essential and the Coalition did some sort of job of it later, but a lot of people were sacked, unpaid and pissed off at various stages. And not necessarily separated from their weapons.

4. Removing any legitimate routes of engagement for these people back into the functioning of their country. Because many are in jail, and others are banned from holding positions due to former party membership, and many are effectively banned because theirs is now the discriminated against religion, rather than the discriminated towards religion.

It's completely predictable that treating these groups of people like this will lead to the formation of a competent alternative movement complete with highly experienced militia. These were people who were never going to sit there and take the loss of their entire world quietly.

I didn't know what ideology the movement would adopt - just that there would almost certainly be one.

It's astounding isn't it Pausing.

Ordinary, everyday people with no actual experience or any special insight and with only a passing knowledge of history & its lessons could see all of that.

Experts & advisors were no doubt telling him that.

And yet.... Tony Blair and George W Bush knew best.

Atrocious & horribly inevitable.

I always felt one of Blair's motivations was not to be Harold Wilson refusing to send troops to Vietnam.

Blair is a war criminal and should be tried in The Hague as one.

I know this will grate with some of you, but the Telegraph online has an excellent resume of the main points of Chilcott. Having listened to a Professor of Internstional Law at UCL recently, he made it clear that Tony Blair cannot be classed as a war criminal. Chilcott also does not decide upon the legalities of what was done. The report looks at the decision-making process and the numerous mistakes that were made. Focus sing one just one politician will not enable us to learn lessons for the future.

I believe Chilcott is very clear where there has to be improvement. The Ministry of Defence is also criticised for not being aware of what resources were needed to fight and were too slow to deliver. As the Government was trying, with its media hat on, to say it wanted to avoid war, they did not gear up commissioning and purchasing. They totally over estimated what the British Army was capable of doing with the resources allocated to it. It does not appear that the Army Generals were too clear on saying what the limitations should have been either.

Chilcott also talks about the relationship between Blair and Bush, the lack of cabinet scrutiny regarding information discussed at cabinet meetings and how the information they were given was flawed anyway. There is a huge amount to think about for future governance during a crisis and just saying Tony Blair should be hung drawn and quartered is to misunderstand the purpose of Chilcott. Of course Tony Blair is criticised but he did not commit war crimes.

Today I am ashamed to be British.

I can't believe there are no consequences for Blair on this. It's so wrng