The Gown – student newspaper at Queen's University Belfast.

COMMENT: The Iraq Inquiry

The past few weeks have seen intense media interest in the Iraq Inquiry which began in July with private hearings, but has only recently began to publicly feature high-profile members of the Establishment, the most prominent being Tony Blair but also members of the then-British cabinet including Alastair Campbell, Jack Straw and Clare Short, with Gordon Brown to be interviewed sometime in the future.  The Inquiry’s remit includes analysing the reasons the war on Iraq was undertaken in the first place, if preparations for the war were satisfactory, if British soldiers were properly equipped, and whether the British government had a workable plan for the aftermath of the invasion.

BY PADRAIC GRANT

One of the key debates during the proceedings has surrounded the legality of the war. This issue was closely analysed during the 6 hour questioning of Lord Goldsmith, the lawyer and ex-Attorney General who gave Tony Blair the legal green light for the war to go ahead. Controversy surrounds Goldsmith due to his changed position on the legal issue, having at first expressed doubts over the legality of the war as well as stating that it would be “safer” for the UN to impose fresh sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s government. Goldsmith denied changing his opinion due to political pressure however, stating that he received a letter from the Ministry of Defence asking “for a clear view, a yes or no answer” and that he had to be “unequivocal” in his answer, meaning that any ambiguities in his previous position had to be ironed out.  Blair has come under criticism for relying on one lawyer’s approval for the war to go ahead while ignoring the advice from the UN, the International Commission of Jurists and other legal experts who argued that the war was in violation of international law.

During her own session at the Inquiry Clare Short, former International Development minister in the Blair cabinet, made it clear that she felt the government had been mislead into approving the war through Blair’s manipulation of the cabinet (which Short described as “not a decision-making body”) and outright lies (including suggesting that the UN would have a humanitarian role in the post-invasion reconstruction of Iraq). While Blair has argued that the war was just due to the repressive nature of Saddam Hussein’s government and its capacity to create Weapons of Mass Destruction in future, Short has dismissed his evidence as “ludicrous”. This may be given extra weight by the Inquiry’s decision to recall Tony Blair due to conflicts between his and Lord Goldsmith’s evidence, specifically on the question of the legality of the invasion.

The Inquiry’s findings won’t be published until sometime before 2011 due to the number of individuals to be questioned and documents to be analysed. This means that the Labour Party will be safe from potentially damaging revelations before the 2010 General Election, though the public questioning of senior figures has, and may again, reveal information that paints the party as corrupt and dishonest, particularly if those it affects are still members of the cabinet.

Tags: Gown, newspaper, Padraic Grant, qub, Queen's, queen's university, student, The Gown, The Iraq Inquiry

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 2:42 pm and is filed under News, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.