Two weeks ago, it was revealed that a year before the invasion of Iraq, Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary at the time, had warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that the case for war was of questionable legality. He sent Blair a letter in March 2002, just 10 days before the prime minister met with President George Bush. The letter indicates that Blair was already on a course for military action at a time when he was telling the British public that no decision had been made. Among 11 points Straw included:
If 11 September had not happened, it is doubtful that the US would now be considering military action against Iraq. In addition, there has been no credible evidence to link Iraq with [Osama bin Laden] and Al Qaida. Objectively, the threat from Iraq has not worsened as a result of 11 September. What has however changed is the tolerance of the international community (especially that of the US), the world having witnessed on September 11 just what determined evil people can these days perpetuate.
A January survey commissioned by the Times (of London) found that 52% of Britons believe Blair misled the nation, and 23% want him tried as a war criminal.
Today, the Chilcot Inquiry into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, heard from the former prime minister. You can catch a blow-by-blow here.
Ben Quinn reports:
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair invoked the terror of 9/11 as he defended his support for the invasion of Iraq during an appearance Friday at Britain's inquiry into the war. With his legacy overshadowed by the 2003 intervention, Mr. Blair argued that while the 2001 attacks on the US had not changed the threat from Iraq, they completely shifted his perception of the risk posed from terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
"The crucial thing after Sept. 11 is that the calculus of risk changed," he said in an inquiry broadcast live on British television and on British news websites. "The point about this act in New York was that, had they been able to kill even more people than those 3,000, they would have. And so after that time, my view was, you could not take risks with this issue at all."
As police contained hundreds of protesters calling for Blair to be tried as a war criminal, the former premier arrived two hours early and entered via a back door before his highly anticipated appearance at the government-established investigation.
Reputations - and the Labour party's results in the elections that must be held by June 3 - are all that will suffer as a consequence of the inquiry. Blair won't be found guilty of anything since he hasn't been charged with anything. But it would be cause for some celebration if chairman Sir John Chilcot could require three guys named Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld to put in an appearance under oath. While the British inquiry may turn out to be a whitewash, even that would be preferable to the out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach the U.S. has taken toward those whose fabrications created a $3 trillion war that put a million or so civilians and soldiers into premature graves.