Iraq: The War In Error

In spite of over 1m voters taking to the streets in protest, with no mandate form the UN, and with only suspected (and suspicious) evidence with regard to Hussein’s capabilities and intentions, Blair decided to go to War.

Round Two of The War on Terror kicked off in 2003 with three main objectives: to oust Saddam Hussein and his baath party, to remove his weapons of mass destruction, and to free the Iraqi people. There were, and are, problems associated with these aims.

The removal of Hussein destabilised the country and created a power vacuum that has still to be filled. Iraq, though enjoying a long history, is actually an artificial country created by Britain who had been ceded the area of Mesopotamia by the League of Nations after the first world war. As such, it has no single ethnic basis but instead consists of a variety of racial backgrounds including the Kurds, Assyrians, Mandeans, Iraqi Turkmen, Shabaks and Roma.

Once Hussein was removed, these factions were free to resume their quarrels with each other which now consists of daily bombing attacks on populated areas, and has helped propel the number of Iraqi civilian deaths to nearly 65,000 in the last four years.

Freedom for the Iraqi people apparently doesn’t stretch as far as the freedom to go shopping without worrying that you’re going to get blown up while British commuters have been brainwashed into having the same doubts when travelling on the Underground or flying. Billions of pounds have been wasted in order to turn a nation into a bloodbath with no obvious benefit for anyone other than we (and, by that, we should say “The Americans”) now have control of one of the most lucrative set of oil fields available, which means that we shouldn’t be short of petrol that Blair can tax us on.

If one can find anything that the Blair Government have done to genuinely benefit this Britain, could it even go partway to balancing the real cost of this disastrous episode in British history?