Hans Blix: Blair government became 'prisoner' of US before war in Iraq

[oldironside]

"The Blair government would have liked to have gone down the diplomatic route to disarm Saddam Hussein but became a "prisoner" of a US policy heading towards war, the former head of the UN weapons inspectors told the Iraq inquiry today . Both Britain and the US should have realised "their sources were poor" when his inspectors found nothing in Iraq, Hans Blix said. It should have set alarm bells ringing in London and Washington when the inspectors repeatedly failed to turn up any evidence that Saddam still had active WMD programmes, he told the Chilcot inquiry.

Blix said it was his "firm view" that the invasion of Iraq was illegal, adding: "I think the vast majority of international lawyers feel that way." Lord Goldsmith, Tony Blair's attorney general, had "wriggled" before he finally provided the legal authority for British troops to invade, Blix said. "He was not quite sure it would have stood an international tribunal. Nevertheless, he gave the green light to it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/27/hans-blix-iraq-chilcot-inquiry

I do find that rather difficult to believe that the Blair government had any interest in diplomacy, except as a means of delivering legal cover. Blair had the light of pure fanaticism in is eyes in the run up to the invasion to the point where even Bush complimented him on his cojones. Maybe we wouldn't have gone in, but it would have taken some sort of July 20th plot.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "we were a prisoner of the US" was basically Straw's excuse back in 2004

in the Commons. See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3006421&mesg_id=3006535

[oldironside]

2. I had a special relationship like that once.

You know how it is. You kid yourself. You turn a blind eye. You magnify any little positives and ignore the negatives. You keep telling yourself that tomorrow will be better if only you're just a little bit nicer and a little bit more flexible. Then, one day, you wake up and realise you are being used by someone who doesn't give a damn.

That's the point you dump someone by text message. Mr Cameron should be composing the text now. Not that the dumpee will care. They'll just look for someone else to exploit.