We must “learn the lessons” of Chilcot, says Worcester MP Robin Walker

A long-awaited official inquiry delivered a devastating indictment of Britain’s decision to invade Iraq Wednesday, July 6 finding that the war was based on flawed intelligence and had been launched before diplomatic options were exhausted, CNN reports.

Those who opposed joining the 2003 war in Iraq are now crying victory, after the release of the Chilcot report.

Tony Blair has expressed “regret” that he did not challenge intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction but insisted he still believed he was right to overthrow the Iraqi dictator.

He said: “When you judge the wisdom of those decision… it is important to ask ourselves what would have happened if we had taken the other decision”.

But he said: “I don’t believe this struggle was in vain”. Chilcot said Goldsmith’s reasoning was not properly examined at the time by the government.

Responding to the findings of the Chilcot report, he said on Good Morning Britain that if Tony Blair had refused to offer Britain’s assistance, it could have led to the USA rethinking their strategy.

“I acknowledge the inquiry says that the point of “last resort” had not been reached, but that was not how I saw matters at the time.

There were no lies, there was no deceit, there was no deception”, the former prime minister told reporters, looking gaunt and strained but growing animated as he responded to questions.

Mr Youd said the British people should “never again” be taken into war “under false pretences”.

In his defence, Blair said: “I wanted to make sure that America did not feel alone, that it did not feel compelled to go it alone”.

In a almost two hour-long news conference, the former prime minister said he still believes he acted in “good faith” and that the decision was the “hardest, most momentous, most agonizing” one he ever took.

Speaking after the publication of the Chilcot report into the war, Blair defended his promise to then US President George W Bush that he was “with you, whatever”, saying it was not a guarantee to go into conflict.

– Military action might have been necessary later, but in March 2003 (when United Kingdom went into war), it said, there was no imminent threat from the then Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, the strategy of containment could have been adapted and continued for some time.

Retired civil servant Chilcot said his report was “an account of an intervention which went badly wrong, with consequences to this day”.

It said Blair’s government presented an assessment of the threat posed by Saddam’s weapons with “certainty that was not justified”.

√ The US/UK special relationship has proved “strong enough to bear the weight of honest disagreement” and “does not require unconditional support where our interests or judgments differ”.

Mr Blair said he accepted the report’s finding that it would have been better if the cabinet had been given attorney general Lord Goldsmith’s written advice on the legality of the conflict rather than having to rely on an oral briefing.

President Barack Obama’s “longstanding opposition to the invasion of Iraq is well known and has been extensively litigated”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. He said they also failed to consider “that Iraq might no longer have chemical biological or nuclear weapons” – which turned out to be the case.