Iraq war inquiry must dig deep for truth

Published on Sunday 22 November 2009 21:51

THE war in Iraq may be long over, but for the UK government and parliament, it is a war with searching questions that just will not go away. Britain's role in the Iraq conflict triggered massive public protests and left 179 British soldiers dead. Tomorrow retired Whitehall mandarin Sir John Chilcot begins his long-awaited Iraq War Inquiry. He has promised to produce a "full and insightful" account of the decision-making process which took Britain into the conflict.

Any doubts as to the sensitivity of this inquiry were dispelled yesterday with the publication of leaked British government documents. These are said to call into question ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's public statements on the build-up to the war and show plans for the US-led 2003 invasion were being made more than a year earlier.

The reports claim that the plans were so badly drafted that they left troops poorly equipped and ill-prepared for the conflict.

The leaked documents are likely to be supplied to the Chilcot Inquiry which was set up to scrutinise prewar intelligence and postwar planning.

Sir John's inquiry will call Mr Blair and the current and former heads of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency – John Sawers and John Scarlett – to give testimony in person.

This Inquiry must leave no stone unturned to ensure the full truth of the circumstances of Britain's involvement is brought out into the open.