At the end of 2009 the UK launched an Inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war. This should hopefully answer some of the controversial questions people here in the UK have – like why did we really go to war? How was it conducted? And were our soldiers properly prepared?
Key players of the Iraq War like our former Prime Minister Tony Blair gave evidence recently. It was the moment we had all been waiting for.
Had the leader we once loved actually lied to us about the reasons for war? The families of some of our dead soldiers had turned up to hear his explanations and jeered him when he said that he had no regrets about his decision and would do it all again. Hundreds of demonstrators waited for him outside and he faced heckles of ‘murderer’ when he finished giving his evidence.
It now seems that we did not go to war for the reasons our leaders told us – Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. There was no chance any weapons could be rocketed towards the UK in 45 minutes. In other words we were all made to worry for no reason!
Many members of Parliament have now come forward and admitted they did not support the war and that some of them felt pressured to go along with the prime minister.
It’s also come to light that our armed forces did not have the right equipment for the mission they were sent on and we don’t seem to have had a decent plan of action for rebuilding Iraq either.
This all seems quite obvious now that we can all see the mess we’ve left abroad for ourselves. Most of all I feel really sorry for the relatives of soldiers injured and killed in the war – who now know that things might’ve been different if we’d been better prepared and that we might not have needed to go to war at all.
There’s still some time to go until we hear the result of the Inquiry and whether it’s deemed legal or not but whatever the outcome, it would be very interesting and controversial. So watch this space…