Posts
The Chilcot report, the UK government’s official report on the catastrophic decision to invade Iraq, was released on Wednesday morning, seven years after it was initially convened. The report delivers a pretty devastating verdict on the war, concluding that Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat to the West and war was avoidable.
But from an American point of view, the most striking part of the report is how foreseeable the disaster that unfolded after the invasion was.
When you read the British government’s intelligence assessments, they predict, plus or minus a few details, exactly what happened after the war. The UK had ample warning that Iraq would collapse after the invasion and make the problem of terrorism worse — but it went to war anyway.
Why? Basically, the report suggests, because the US decided to. Then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair decided that the UK couldn’t afford the hit to the US-UK relationship that would come from seriously challenging the Bush administration’s rush to war, so he decided to back America to the hilt.
While the UK government made a huge number of mistakes before the war, the takeaway from Chilcot is clear: It’s America’s fault. The disaster in Iraq was not just foreseeable but, in the case of the UK, actually foreseen. The United States just went ahead with the war anyway. Though Britain screwed up, this is truly America’s shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment