Chilcott enquiry

Blair did not apologise Izabella

The one good thing that can be said however, is that we had the Chilcot report at all.
I think there were quite a few countries involved initially in the ill advised Iraq War, and the UK is the only nation to have an enquiry about it.

Anniebach I'm of the opinion that taking responsibilty and showing remorse for his mistakes are two different things entirely but that is purely my own opinion.

Yes Glammananna, so do I, sorry don't know why you thought I needed to be told this

They won't hold Bush to account will they. What about the people in the Labour Party I can't remember if they all backed Blair at the time. ThoughtbBlair was going to be a really good prime minister well I got that wrong.

Both labour and Tory MP's voted for the war, some not all.

Blair should go away now. He is still trying to run the Labour party from the sidelines.
I watched hours of it and it was very depressing. All the MPs that had voted for the war had their excuses ready. What a shame that Robin Cook didn't have a chance to respond. We should remember that he said at the time that he had seen all the evidence and documents that Blair had and that the case for war just wasn't there.
Blair is irredeemable now but his Messiah complex will never let him see it and unfortunately he is surrounded by people that pander to it.
I think all we can do is maybe find a charity that is trying to help the Iraqi victims of our invasion and make a donation and remember that the UK is now involved in the Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Hopefully the latter is just in reconstruction. Libya was left in a mess.

I get tired of malicious words about Tony Blair. Yes he made mistakes, big ones, bad results because they were big decisions. He made them with the intention if preventing a 9/11 type incident here. Don't close your ears to the good things said about him. No he was not acting yesterday and he could hide away but doesn't........a 2 hour press conference. He has to live with it for the rest of his days. Vengeance rarely brings peace of mind.

Glammanann, thank goodness you got your boys back. As for Blair, I heard a man scared, stumbling on occasion, but not apologising. He is married to a lawyer and was very careful not to admit liability, he is trying to save his own skin, don't think he has the faintest idea just what he has done, he took responsibility for what the "Labour Government" had done, again deflecting his responsibility to the government. He is a traitor and a liar and I just wish their was some way we could help all the people suffering because of him. The money for this report could have helped so many affected if he had admitted his mistakes, he didn't care what it cost it he just delayed it as much as he could. I think he should have his assets taken off him, the big houses, the cars, his savings and help those he hurt. But he won't do that because money and power are his Gods.

Coming so soon after nine eleven, I think the Americans saw getting rid of Saddam as a tangible way of demonstrating to the American people that they could "kick some ass", and I think Iraq was seen as a soft target, despite the intelligence being flawed. I don't think they even considered what they would do with the country if and when Saddam was deposed. They didn't have a plan. They haven't had a good track record in military conflict since WWII. Vietnam was an ugly fiasco in which they did not acquit themselves well. That Bush managed to drag us along on this fool's errand was entirely the fault of Blair and his cabinet IMO. As for our troops being ill equipped, the MOD have a poor track record in this. Equipment was inadequate in the Falklands. Boots, particularly, have always been a problem. Soldiers in the Kuwait conflict were purchasing their own dessert boots because there weren't enough available and in Iraq, standard green issue was being worn by many troops because there was not enough desert camouflage to go round (troops who only had greens we not allowed to meet the PM when he visited, apparently), but of course, most crucially, body armour, armoured vehicles and communications equipment were in dangerously short supply and to my mind it has to be considered to be a criminal act to send troops into war with inadequate protection. I listened to Blair on the radio this morning and I wanted to throw up.

Blair is a lawyer .

There is a song called The Vicar of Bray, well that is the personality of Tony Blair, always clinging to the winning side. In Catholicism the believer is meant to examine their conscience, where is evidence of this. Then the high office of Special Envoy to Peace in the Middle East, other than being rewarded by his paymaster the US and Israel what did he do? He is nauseous, needs to be publicly shamed for the blood on all sides both our stoic armed forces and the Iraqi ordinary people. Hans Blixt tried his best to get more time but was publicly scorned, time to exonerate him.

This early response from Caroline Lucas says plenty. What I really want to know is the truth about the death of Dr David Kelly. It's important to know if we live in a society where this kind of apparent 'assassination' can take place.
www.carolinelucas.com/latest/chilcot-report-evidence-of-deception-and-illegality

Did anyone see the television play 'Reg' on BBC iplayer recently? Worth watching. Do any politicians actually get 'held responsible' for their misdeeds - I'm thinking Blair, Johnston, Farage among countless others.

mernice, I agree with you. I marched in anti war protests but do think the threat after the bombing of the twin towers left the west in fear . I also am surprised that no one is laying blame on MI6 for errors in their part of this with poor intelligence. haven't read the report but assume there is nothing of emails from Bush. I would like to know what did Blair reply to when he mailed 'we are with you' I assume some here have read the full report , I know I will not, never finished War and Peace and the report is longer. Must be speed readers here who can tell what if any emails are from Bush

Anniebach I know he did not apologise. My sarcasm does not come through using quotation marks.

Sorry Izabella

Tony Blair should be nominated for an Oscar - trembling lips, moist eyes, pauses to control the emotion threatening to overcome him - he ticked every box.

You do know that our armed forces are made up with volunteers that is people who actauly want to fight.

Do you know for a fact that they all were volunteers? I ask this because DH left the army in the 1980s but was automatically put on the reserve list (as they all are). He was called back up to go to Kuwait. He certainly didn't volunteer. Neither did his three mates who were also called back.

And, your point is Gononsuch?

Yes jaycee every time he gets interviewed these days, I wish he would just butt out and stop trying to play the much loved elder statesman and realise that when he tries to shape events people are most likely to react by doing the opposite of what he recommends. I wish he would get on the proverbial one way ship to some remote island. (a tax haven maybe?)
And after last week's unseemly interference I wish Neil Kinnock would join him.

Tony Blair was a big fan of Margaret Thatcher, who cancelled the naval guard of the Falklands, tempting the Argentinians to invade (something that Jim Callaghan before her had quietly prevented), and of course after many lives were lost or changed forever, she reaped the political cudos and was re-elected when she would almost certainly have otherwise lost.

Did Blair want to emulate her by going to war, winning and boosting his popularity? We will probably never know.

What was unseemly about Kinnock voicing his opinion? He is a member of the party, a former leader , same as Ed Milliband

It was a dispute in the PLP Annie. Kinnock is no longer a member of the PLP.
Ed is still a member of the PLP so legitimate that he should express a view. I just googled Ed and Kinnock and Kinnock is he one who got all the publicity, thumping tubs and urging Corbyn to resign. Ed's language is far more moderate and diplomatic "reluctantly", "with regret" etc.
I know Ed is not a great front man - too much of an intellectual to be a successful leader - but I have a lot of time for him. He has behaved with a huge amount of discretion, tact, professionalism and dignity over the last year. Which is what we should expect of our politicians. John Major has also behaved to high standards since he relinquished the role of party leader.
Kinnock, who managed to lose 2 elections, is hardly in a position to take the moral high ground and say that Corbyn could not win a future election. Hence, unseemly.