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Five Years On, Remember These Things

Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2008-03-17 01:22.

By David Morrison

On the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, some of the following pamphlets by me may be of interest:-

1) Iraq: Lies, Half-truths & Omissions
This pamphlet details the deceit perpetrated by the British Government in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, the most blatant being the failure to tell the British public that Hussein Kamal, Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, told UN inspectors in 1995 that Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons and proscribed missiles had all been destroyed on his orders.

2) Iraq: How regime change was dressed up as disarmament
This pamphlet takes as its starting point a memo to Prime Minister Blair from his Foreign Policy adviser, which revealed that Blair was committed to regime change in Iraq by military action from March 2002. In order to work up public support for military action, over the next twelve months Blair engaged in an elaborate pretence that his objective was the disarmament of Iraq, whose possession of highly dangerous "weapons of mass destruction" made it a threat to its neighbours and the world, a threat that had to be eliminated by military action.

3) Iraq WAS a US ally in the "war on terror"
This pamphlet shows how, in order to work up domestic support for an unprovoked attack on Iraq in March 2003, the Bush administration continually gave the impression that Saddam Hussein was aiding al-Qaida and had played a part in 9/11, when there was no intelligence justification for saying so. In other words, Bush pretended that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was a haven for al-Qaida - when it wasn’t - in order to justify an attack on Iraq that has made it into a haven for al-Qaida. You couldn't make it up.

4) The Attorney-General's legal advice was sound
The important aspect of the Attorney-General's legal advice to Blair prior to the invasion was that it was highly unlikely that either Britain, or Blair, would be indicted if it went ahead and invaded Iraq. He was right. As a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, Britain is free to invade any country it likes without fear of a slap on the wrist from the Security Council, let alone economic or military sanctions. This pamphlet examines in detail the arguments about the "legality" of the invasion.

5) Blair's legacy: Hundreds of thousands dead, Britain less safe
Blair's military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he justified as a counter to threats to Britain’s security, have in reality made Britain less safe. As for the threats to Britain’s security, there were none, neither from al-Qaida in October 2001, nor from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in March 2003. That is Blair’s legacy. He has made Britain less safe by his military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and, in the process, he has caused the deaths of nearly 300 British soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis. That should be engraved on his tombstone.

Other material on Iraq by me is available here.

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