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As we patiently await Chilcot, I'll hand around the humbugs
Chilcot: the timetable
All times are BST (GMT+1).
* David Cameron already has the report, which was delivered to him at 11am on Tuesday.
* The report is embargoed until Sir John Chilcot makes his public statement, but some senior politicians, journalists and other involved parties, including the families of some of the 179 British soldiers who died in the conflict, will be able to read it from 8am on Wednesday.
* At 11am, Chilcot makes his statement.
* When he concludes, at around 11.20am, the entire report will be published here.
* PMQs follows at noon in the House of Commons.
* Immediately after that, at around 12.30pm, David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn will make statements on the report. It’s expected that Corbyn will, as he has pledged, apologise on behalf of the Labour party for the war in Iraq.
* Tony Blair is also expected to give a press conference later today.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jul/06/chilcot-report-live-inquiry-war-iraq?page=with:block-577c5ca8e4b0445bf0e06f7f#block-577c5ca8e4b0445bf0e06f7f
All times are BST (GMT+1).
* David Cameron already has the report, which was delivered to him at 11am on Tuesday.
* The report is embargoed until Sir John Chilcot makes his public statement, but some senior politicians, journalists and other involved parties, including the families of some of the 179 British soldiers who died in the conflict, will be able to read it from 8am on Wednesday.
* At 11am, Chilcot makes his statement.
* When he concludes, at around 11.20am, the entire report will be published here.
* PMQs follows at noon in the House of Commons.
* Immediately after that, at around 12.30pm, David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn will make statements on the report. It’s expected that Corbyn will, as he has pledged, apologise on behalf of the Labour party for the war in Iraq.
* Tony Blair is also expected to give a press conference later today.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jul/06/chilcot-report-live-inquiry-war-iraq?page=with:block-577c5ca8e4b0445bf0e06f7f#block-577c5ca8e4b0445bf0e06f7f
Given the length and likely complexity of the report and the brief time that will have passed between its release and PMQs, although some will have had sight of it, or sections of it in advance, the real fireworks may not come today. Other than the no doubt sympathetic reports of the reactions of the service families, who have already been given quite a bit of airtime in advance on some of our media over the past few days.
I'd imagine there'll be a lot of droning on about "lessons to be learned" etc., and no doubt from the Tories an eager grasp of the chance to bash Labour - then and now.
But let's cast our minds back a few months:
Opening a debate lasting 10 and a half hours, the prime minister admitted his case for airstrikes was complex, but said the question was whether the UK should go after “the terrorists in their heartlands, from where they are plotting to kill British people” or “sit back and wait for them to attack us”.
However, he was apparently unsettled in bitter opening exchanges when he was repeatedly challenged to apologise for remarks at a private meeting of Tory MPs on Tuesday in which he urged his colleagues not to vote alongside “a bunch of terrorist sympathisers”.
However, he was apparently unsettled in bitter opening exchanges when he was repeatedly challenged to apologise for remarks at a private meeting of Tory MPs on Tuesday in which he urged his colleagues not to vote alongside “a bunch of terrorist sympathisers”.
Does that sound uncomfortably like the run-up to the Iraq War? As somebody who was extremely vocal in my opposition to the Iraq invasion, not least online, I can well remember being accused of all sorts of things - of sympathizing with Saddam, not caring about the people of Iraq who were suffering under his regime etc. by people who were only too quick to spout about "libtards", "towelheads". And then there were people who weren't idiots or racists who genuinely were caught up in the governments' and media's push for war and thought, on the (sometimes very scant) information they'd been given, that "something had to be done", and since nobody seemed to have any better ideas (nobody who was getting serious airtime in comparison to the pro-war propagandists), this was it.
That quote above comes from Cameron's push to join in the Syrian airstrikes just last December. If the scope for worsening the situation by our involvement was enormously less than the Iraq invasion, it's because we were joining an already occurring conflict with armaments which were not going to make a significant difference except to Cameron's standing among those he wanted to impress.
And Cameron, as did Blair's cabinet before him, blatantly stretched the truth:
He tried to dispel scepticism over claims from the joint intelligence committee that 70,000 non-extremist forces existed, ready to take on Isis, but was forced to admit there would be a reliance on the patchwork of Free Syrian Army troops in Syria and that not all were in the right place.
...
The prime minister said there was a political strategy that would bring about a “transitional government in six months, a new constitution and free and fair elections within 18 months”.
...
Cameron warned that Isis was already posing a threat to the UK. It had inspired the worst terrorist attack against British people since 7/7 on the beaches of Tunisia and plotted atrocities on the streets of Britain, he said. “Since November last year, our security services have foiled no fewer than seven different plots against our people, so this threat is very real,” he said. “Daesh has been trying to attack us for the past year, as we know from the seven different plots that our security services have foiled.”
...
The prime minister said there was a political strategy that would bring about a “transitional government in six months, a new constitution and free and fair elections within 18 months”.
...
Cameron warned that Isis was already posing a threat to the UK. It had inspired the worst terrorist attack against British people since 7/7 on the beaches of Tunisia and plotted atrocities on the streets of Britain, he said. “Since November last year, our security services have foiled no fewer than seven different plots against our people, so this threat is very real,” he said. “Daesh has been trying to attack us for the past year, as we know from the seven different plots that our security services have foiled.”
Well, that's all worked out swimmingly according to plan.
Meanwhile, Labour was bitterly split on the issue, as ever, and who can forget Hilary Benn's nonsensical, jingoistic and opportunistic surprise speech in favour of the UK's involvement in airstrikes being cheered to the rafters? Hilary Benn, who sparked off the latest round in Labour's civil war just a week or so ago - evidently somebody whose judgment can be trusted.
There are lessons to be learned from Chilcot, flawed as the report no doubt will end up being. Unfortunately, they'll be filtered through the media - the same media as a mass which got us into Iraq and facilitated the airstrike campaign - and obscured by party political point-scoring and attempts to protect reputations and careers.
My own bottom line after all the arguments about Iraq is that there was no exit strategy. None. Underpants Gnome territory. And some people got very rich out of it, some died, and too many are still suffering and grieving. That's a pretty basic lesson to learn.
The Guardian's Chilcot Report Live coverage is here. If anybody else knows of any good online resources, please do chip in with them below.
