Iraq: The war was illegal

[oldironside]

Tony Blair will be quizzed over a devastating official memo warning him that war on Iraq would be illegal eight months before he sent troops into Baghdad, it was claimed last night.

The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war will consider a letter from Lord Goldsmith, then Mr Blair's top law officer, advising him that deposing Saddam would be in breach of international law, according to a report in The Mail on Sunday.

But Mr Blair refused to accept Lord Goldsmith's advice and instead issued instructions for his long-term friend to be "gagged" and barred from cabinet meetings, the newspaper claimed. Lord Goldsmith apparently lost three stone, and complained he was "more or less pinned to the wall" in a No 10 showdown with two of Mr Blair's most loyal aides, Lord Falconer and Baroness Morgan. Mr Blair also allegedly failed to inform the Cabinet of the warning, fearing an "anti-war revolt".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iraq-the-uwaru-was-illegal-1830508.html

I have to admit I'm enjoying this. Nice to be proven right.

[mrfrapp]

1. Blair is "concerned"

Another Blair ally said the former leader had made clear his concern that "his reputation could be shredded by the Chilcot process".

What a sad and pathetic character is Tony Blair. I'm cautious of optimism but from what I'm reading Blair is in a very precarious situation and his reputation (whatever that is) should be the least of his concerns. I'd be consulting a very good lawyer if I were him.

[T_i_B]

2. "Nice to be proven right."

Well I for one do not enjoy being proven right when making a pessimistic prediction. Far better that things go well and you are proven wrong if you ask me.

The Iraq war was actually a bigger disaster then I envisaged, and I protested quite heavily against it in the first place.

[oldironside]

3. Uh...

... if you want to try and take the moral high ground, I would like to point out that I would have preferred if the whole bloody mess had never happened. That's why I marched through London.

However, I was referring to the surprisingly candid admissions coming out in the Chilcot hearings, and it's nice to have inside confirmation that what I (along with a lot of others) was saying at the time was substantially true.

And to those Mail reading Neanderthals who told me at the time I didn't know what I was talking about, I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly say quite clearly, go and f*ck yourselves.

[T_i_B]

6. As far as the "Mail reading Neanderthals" go...

I've had one such person, who had a pop at me at the time for campaigning against the Iraq war apologize for it.

Mind you, it's not the people who read the RW press who are to blame for this disaster, it's the politicians for leading us into it and for completely failing to hold Tony Blair to account at the time.

[LeftishBrit]

4. The only thing that surprises me about this...

is that people are at last speaking out. I wish they had done so much earlier!

[TheBigotBasher]

5. What happened when David Kelly spoke up?

He was crucified on national (and international) tv by a New Labour thug, a few days later was dead.

The BBC became lickspittle followers of the Blair agenda for yearsafter and NEVER got an apology from the likes of Blair, Mandleson and Campbell - despite being right. The Iraq war report was SEXED UP.

Even Lord Hutton was a victim of that enquiry, an enquiry with a very narrow remit, when the public thought it much much broader. Chilcott could face the same problems if more and more documents are kept top secret.