Tag Archives: iraq

Paul Reynolds

Opinion: We await the lessons of Iraq while new conflicts loom

By Paul Reynolds | Wed 27th March 2013 - 9:58 am

It is ten years this week since I agreed to act as lead independent political and governance adviser in Iraq, primarily in the British-controlled Southern Provinces – despite my known anti-war views. It was a harrowing experience, risking the ultimate on a daily basis, appointing directly the first regional government in Basra by way of negotiations with largely hostile tribal, political and religious groups, and then working on other problems.

There has been much reflection in the media in the last few days over the failures of the conflict, its illegality, and lessons for the future, notwithstanding the absence, as yet,  …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged | 4 Comments
Ming Campbell MP

Ming Campbell writes: Britain lost moral authority as a result of its participation in Iraq

By Ming Campbell MP | Tue 19th March 2013 - 2:01 pm

Some rights reserved by mashleymorgan Today is the 10th Anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. We are marking it by publishing reflections on the war and its aftermath by senior Liberal Democrats.

The second is by Ming Campbell.

It is hard now to find anyone who will defend British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq ten years ago. Labour’s current frontbench seek now only to distance themselves from personal involvement in the decision to go to war and it has been all but airbrushed out of recent Tory history. Even in …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg – If Iraq taught us anything, it’s this…

By NewsHound | Mon 18th March 2013 - 10:45 am

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion by the USA and the UK of Iraq. In an article published in The Independent, Nick Clegg reflects on the decisions made by the last Labour government and the lessons to be drawn. Here’s an excerpt:

The pretext given by the Blair government for the invasion – Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction – proved false. The intervention led to years of instability, sectarian violence and religious extremism within Iraq and beyond. It strengthened Iran’s ability to destabilise its neighbours and it undermined the credibility of the United Nations.

The

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Caron Lindsay

LibLink… Paddy Ashdown: It’s not a fight against “us”, it’s Islam vs Islam

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd January 2013 - 6:55 pm

Mali rebel - License Some rights reserved by MagharebiaIn an article in today’s Times, Paddy Ashdown concedes that David Cameron is probably right that the so-called War on Terror (a term Paddy dislikes) will go on for another decade. Paddy argues that we need to recognise that the way western countries have been operating doesn’t work. What is needed now is to recognise that the fight is between different factions of Islam. It should be our job to help out moderate governments where we can.

He outlined why the “invasions, main battle armies and occupation” of

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Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Also tagged , , , and | 5 Comments
Toby Fenwick

In depth: Was the 2003 invasion of Iraq illegal?

By Toby Fenwick | Mon 10th September 2012 - 1:54 pm

In responding to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s call for Tony Blair to face the International Criminal Court, I made clear my view that the 2003 Iraq invasion was an illegal – and criminal – act of aggression. John Rentoul of the Independent on Sunday angrily disputed this on the BBC World Service’s “World, Have your say”, and other commenters here on LDV have asked for an outline of my reasoning.

Aggression – known at Nuremburg as “crimes against

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 45 Comments
Toby Fenwick

Opinion: Is Tutu right on Tony Blair?

By Toby Fenwick | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 2:56 pm

Like so many of us for whom the anti-apartheid struggle was a political awakening in the 1980s, I revere Bishop Desmond Tutu. A voice of humanity, moderation and forgiveness when there was every chance that South Africa’s transition could have gone very differently, Tutu combines unsurpassed moral leadership with no political ambition.

It was therefore with great interest I awoke on Sunday to Tutu’s call for Tony Blair to face the International Criminal Court on charges for aggression resulting from the 2003 Iraq invasion. Tutu goes on to question why Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe should go to the ICC whilst Blair …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 41 Comments
Joe Bourke

Opinion: Foreign policy lessons for the Lib Dem approach to Iran

By Joe Bourke | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 4:26 pm

The Green movement in Iran after the presidential elections in 2009 was the first of the recent popular backlashes against entrenched corruption in authoritarian regimes. That was followed by the Arab spring, continuing upheaval in Egypt and now a similar movement in Russia and elsewhere.

At the time of the electoral protests in Tehran, Iranian staff at the British embassy were being accused by the Iranian authorities of treason and fomenting unrest. There was only muted support for the reform movement in Iran from the international community.

Last month we saw the British Embassy in Tehran ransacked and vandalised

…

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 20 Comments
Mark Pack

A welcome shift in international interventions

By Mark Pack | Mon 28th November 2011 - 10:55 am

News of the Arab League’s sanctions against Syria brings to mind the Curate’s Egg – good in parts. That such sanctions are unprecedented shows a welcome increase once more in the Arab League’s willingness to stand up to dictators where mass violence against the population is involved. (Other dictators are another matter of course.) After the steps in Libya and now Syria, the Arab League is looking rather more like a body that does good rather than excuses evil.

That transformation only goes so far. For it has taken months and around 3,500 deaths to bring about sanctions which are …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg: Learning the lesson of Iraq, planning the peace

By Helen Duffett | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 2:54 pm

Nick Clegg has given a speech on the Arab Spring today at the British Council. He also included a passage on last night’s dramatic events in Libya:

The advances made by the Free Libya Forces in Tripoli would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. Unimaginable, even, for the generations of young Libyans who have never known a world without Qadhafi. Now, that world is within their reach. The momentum for change is breathtaking and, for the cynics who said change wasn’t possible, who had written off the Libyan uprising, written off the Arab Spring, clearly, they were wrong. The

…

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Posted in News and Speeches | Also tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Greg Muttitt

The Independent View: What the Chilcott Inquiry has missed – the role of oil in the Iraq war

By Greg Muttitt | Tue 3rd May 2011 - 10:23 am

While change sweeps the Middle East and fighting escalates in Libya, the Chilcott Inquiry continues to consider the lessons of the Iraq war. The Inquiry has taught us more about the timing, process and legality of key decisions, but the elephant in the room remains the role oil played in those decisions.

“The oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd when you analyse it,” said Tony Blair in February 2003. His protestations were sufficiently effective that in media and parliamentary debates, raising the oil issue became a sure-fire route to losing credibility. And so Chilcott, who …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg lays down five principles of intervention – but doesn’t explain the Ivory Coast

By Mark Pack | Thu 31st March 2011 - 8:55 am

In a major foreign policy speech in Mexico this week, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg laid out five reasons why intervention in Libya was the right course to take and different from Iraq. However, applying those five reasons to the Ivory Coast raises the question why it is being treated so differently from Libya.

In his speech, Clegg said that Libya different from Iraq because:

First, the Libyan action is unambiguously legal. Iraq was not.

Second, there is a clear humanitarian case for intervention in Libya. In Iraq the case rested solely on the danger posed by weapons of mass destruction, a

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 40 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: Why Lib Dems should reject the doctrine of liberal interventionism

By David Thorpe | Sat 26th March 2011 - 11:46 am

If the regular politics of coalition is a walk in a minefield, the Libya crisis presents Lib Dems with a walk in a minefield while being haunted by a pair of malevolent ghouls.

Those twin ghouls are ghosts of conflicts past, conflicts where Britain intervened and expedited disaster, such as Iraq , and the countries where the UK sat on its hands, and watched disaster unfold, such as in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

There are a number interesting, and from a Lib Dem point of view welcome, feature of the debate concerning the possibility of the western intervention in Libya, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 42 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg on Libya: “This is not Iraq”

By Helen Duffett | Fri 18th March 2011 - 6:46 pm

From the BBC:

Nick Clegg has voiced his support for possible military intervention in Libya, saying that any action would be carried out in order to “uphold international law”.

The deputy prime minister, whose Liberal Democrat Party opposed the war in Iraq, said: “This is not Iraq. We are not going to war”.

His comments came after Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that UK forces would join an international operation to enforce a UN resolution which demands an end to attacks on Libyan civilians.

For the full story, and a video of the BBC’s interview with Nick Clegg, see the BBC website.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 58 Comments
Mark Pack

Blair criticised by top civil servant for keeping Iraq legal advice from Cabinet

By Mark Pack | Sat 29th January 2011 - 10:55 am

The Guardian reports:

The country’s most senior civil servant … said the cabinet should have been told of the attorney general’s doubts about the legality of invading Iraq before Tony Blair went to war.

“The ministerial code is very clear about the need, when the attorney general gives written advice, the full text of that advice should be attached “, Sir Gus O’Donnell told the Iraq inquiry.

The clear implication of his evidence is that Blair breached the code of conduct ministers have a duty to uphold.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Ed Miliband’s new-found opposition to the Iraq war: what his voting record shows

By Stephen Tall | Wed 29th September 2010 - 9:27 am

Ed Miliband was not an MP in 2003, when Labour and Conservative MPs voted en masse to approve the British invasion of Iraq: so we do not know how he would have voted if he had had the opportunity.

The Ed-supporting New Statesman has been keen to promote his anti-Iraq war credentials — see for example their third-hand hearsay evidence here — but there appears to be nothing on the public record to back up his claim.

We are left, therefore, with Ed Miliband’s voting record in the one full Parliament in which he has served. Take a look at the new Labour leader’s voting record in the House of Commons, as recorded by PublicWhip.org.

As you can see, Mr E. Miliband has a proud 0% voting record on the issue of ‘Iraq Investigation – Necessary’. There were 10 separate votes in the House of Commons in the period in which he has been an MP: in not a single one of these did Mr E. Miliband take the opportunity to make clear, or even hint at, what he now so sincerely believes: that the Iraq war was wrong.

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 16 Comments

The Independent View: Britain should move ahead in Iraq and Kurdistan

By Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman | Wed 15th September 2010 - 2:18 pm

The Lib Dems are proud of their internationalism. It was one thing to oppose the intervention in Iraq and to continue as mistakes after the fall of Saddam were laid bare, but Iraqis like myself are keen to see your party develop its policy seven years later towards Iraq and Kurdistan, the region where I come from which is the stable, secure, commercial gateway to Iraq and Britain’s ally. The key question now is how can the LibDems support the Iraqi political process and ensure that Britain isn’t left behind other European countries in business, cultural and educational exchange with …

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Stephen Tall

How the Westminster Village media is still struggling with concept of coalition

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 6:40 pm

It can be surprisingly easy to excite some journalists. Today is a case in point. Nick Clegg stood in for David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions. During his exchanges with Jack Straw (who was standing in for Labour’s Harriet Harman), the Deputy Prime Minister referred to the invasion of Iraq as “illegal”.

To most people watching this is not a surprise. The Lib Dems’ opposition to the Iraq war, which was supported by both Labour and the Tories, is pretty well-documented, I think it’s fair to say. The fact that the Lib Dems and Conservatives have reached a coalition agreement does not alter the past, nor does it alter politicians’ individual views. Why should it?

And yet the response from some journalists has been to label this a “gaffe” – a term otherwise known as a politician saying something he believes which a journalist hopes to be able to spin into a story.

Indeed, it’s interesting to see how a story like this can develop.

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Posted in Op-eds and PMQs | Also tagged , , , , and | 56 Comments
The Voice

Labour misled Britain over Iraq role in terror threat – Farron

By The Voice | Tue 20th July 2010 - 6:38 pm

A party news release hits The Voice’s inbox:

Commenting on Eliza Manningham-Buller’s evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry, in which she said the conflict in Iraq ‘substantially’ increased the threat to the UK from international terrorism, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tim Farron said:

“This is a shattering blow for Labour’s claim that the Iraq war did not increase the terrorist threat to Britain.

“We already knew that this was a disastrous war for our own brave service personnel and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Now we have the head of MI5 at the time saying …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

“Labour is shunning gay Iraqis, asylum seekers”

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th April 2010 - 2:20 pm

That’s the headline on a comment piece run by Pink News:

As he launched Labour’s international LGBT manifesto last Wednesday, foreign secretary David Miliband made one howler, echoed by another in the manifesto’s text.

He said: “Under Labour the UK will continue to be a beacon of hope for LGBT people.”

This delusion sounded a lot like Home Office minister Phil Woolas’ article last year, when he wrote that he was proud of the attendees of the London Pride march who’d found sanctuary in the UK – never mind that his office would have refused them and fought tooth-and-nail to remove them.

The pair

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo Easter Saturday special: Lib Dem leaders at PMQs

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd April 2010 - 10:50 am

Welcome to this latest LDVideo instalment, and today as a special holiday treat we’re highlighting three political video clips showing Lib Dem leaders on top form at Prime Minister’s Questions.

First up, is Ming Campbell. Now Ming didn’t always have the happiest time at PMQs, but there were times when he hit his stride perfectly, and this was one such occasion, on 24th January 2007, when shaming Tony Blair’s failure to debate in the Commons whether troops should be withdrawn from Iraq:


(Also available on YouTube here).

Secondly, how could we forget Vince Cable‘s starring turn as acting leader? Certainly Gordon ‘Mr Bean’ Brown will never forget it:

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Mark Pack

Daily View 2×2: How to make your own moving Lego barchart

By Mark Pack | Sun 28th March 2010 - 9:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for some serious Lego action, but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Landmarks go dark, millions unplug for Earth Hour

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Stephen Tall

Colin Firth on why he’s stopped voting Labour and now supports the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Tue 16th March 2010 - 4:15 pm

The book ‘Why vote Lib Dem’ – edited by Danny Alexander MP, with a foreword by Nick Clegg, and contribututions from 26 individuals – is selling fast.

Its publisher (one Iain Dale, Esq) reports that it “is outselling Why Vote Conservative by a factor of 9 and Why Vote Labour by a factor 25. Indeed, so popular is the LibDem book that we have almost sold out of the entire print run, meaning that we will have to reprint after only ten days of sales.”

He speculates that one reason might be the Lib Dems’ minor coup in persuading …

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Posted in Books | Also tagged , , , and | 7 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 11 March 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 11th March 2010 - 7:34 am

Good morning, and welcome to Daily View.

Today is notable as the day before LDV’s fascinating fringe event on how to make authoritarian MPs pay at the ballot box – do join us tomorrow in Birmingham to find out how.

302 years ago today, Queen Anne was the last British monarch to withhold Royal Assent from a bill of Parliament.

In 1864, Sheffield saw a Great Flood when a dam under construction burst. The ensuing inundation wrecked a number of bridges, destroyed 800 houses and killed 270 people.

People born on March 11th include Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, Harold Wilson and Douglas Adams; and deaths include Alexander Fleming, John Wyndham and Slobodan Milošević.

2 Big Stories

Parties battle over high speed rail

Will Labour’s Y or the Conservative Reverse-S win the day? Find out in The Times

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Mark Pack

Daily View 2×2 6 March: featuring Iraq, how parties are campaigning and the best pothole photo EVER

By Mark Pack | Sun 7th March 2010 - 9:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for the best pothole photo, ever. FACT. But first, some other stuff.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Brown ‘disingenuous over war funds’

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Was the Iraq war illegal?

By Mark Pack | Sat 6th March 2010 - 10:20 am

STV reports:

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg says that the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War has provided enough information to suggest that the war was illegal.

Speaking on Radio Tay on Friday morning at the same time Prime Minister Gordon Brown was facing questions at the inquiry in London, he said: “I’m not a lawyer, but my view is that now there is sufficient evidence to sustain the claim that this was illegal.”

“A Dutch inquiry into the Iraq war came to the conclusion that it was indeed illegal, and flew in the face of international law…

“It is not a court of

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

Lester QC vs Goldsmith QC: Lib Dem peer says “He didn’t give the correct legal view”

By The Voice | Thu 28th January 2010 - 6:10 pm

Channel 4 News asked top lawyer and Lib Dem peer Lord Lester for his view on former Labour attorney general Lord Goldsmith’s evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the war against Iraq. You can see the eight-minute video below, together with C4′s news report:

Lord Lester QC, a leading human rights lawyer and expert in international law, believes Lord Goldsmith failed in his responsibilities on Iraq. “He didn’t give the correct legal view,” says the Lib Dem peer.

As Britain went to war in March 2003, 16 out of

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments
The Voice

Clegg on suppressed Iraq documents: “this has all the hallmarks of a cover up”

By The Voice | Wed 27th January 2010 - 6:25 pm

Sir John Chilcot, who is chairing the inquiry into the Iraq war, today expressed publicly his “frustration” that the Government has refused to declassify certain information. The BBC reports:

The Lib Dems have accused the government of trying to “gag” the inquiry by refusing to publish them.

The documents include letters between Mr Blair and President Bush. The Cabinet Office said no documents had been withheld from the inquiry but some needed legal clearance before they could be released to the public.

Nick Clegg has called – once again – for those documents requested by the Chilcot inquiry to be published, and …

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NewsHound

LibLink … Norman Baker: Hutton was farcical, feeble and amateurish… so we MUST be told the truth next week

By NewsHound | Sun 24th January 2010 - 3:30 pm

Over at the Mail, Lib Dem MP Norman Baker writes about the imminent appearance of Tony Blair in front of the Chilcot Inquiry into the war in Iraq – and makes a plea for the Hutton Inquiry’s inadequate questioning of how government scientist and former UN weapons inspector Dr David Kelly really died. Here’s an excerpt:

… the fact that we, the British people, have had to wait seven long years for justice is a disgrace, and much of the blame can be firmly laid at the door of one man: Lord Brian Hutton. … when Lord Hutton finally reported in

…

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Helen Duffett

Daily View 2×2: 22 January 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 22nd January 2010 - 11:14 am

It’s January 22nd. It’s one year to the day since President Obama ordered Guantánamo Bay detention camp to be closed – within one year.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts – each with a question – that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

  • How good is the Taliban internal communications department?

    • Rob Blackie asks this because the Taliban have issued their members with a code of conduct:

    As anyone in internal communications will tell you – it’s getting people to read and internalise this sort of guidance that’s difficult.

  • How long does it take to deliver leaflets to the whole parliamentary consituency?

    • asks Philip Ling, Lib Dem PPC for Bromsgrove. Read on to find out his answer, and to take a couple of bundles off his hands.

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Stephen Tall

Brown to face Iraq inquiry soon thanks to Clegg pressure

By Stephen Tall | Fri 22nd January 2010 - 9:55 am

It’s nine days since Nick Clegg challenged Gordon Brown to volunteer to appear before Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the Iraq war this side of the general election “before people decide how to vote on his record in government?” And now it seems that Nick’s pressure has paid off – the BBC reports:

Gordon Brown will give evidence to the Iraq Inquiry before the general election, the BBC understands.

Mr Brown, who has said he is “happy” to face the inquiry whenever called, had been under pressure to do so before the election, which must be held by June.

The inquiry’s chairman is expected to confirm later that the PM will be asked to appear but will not set a date. However, the BBC understands he will appear in late February or early March.

You can re-live the exchange between Nick and Mr Brown, either on video courtesy the BBC or via the Hansard transcript, here on LDV.

Nick has welcomed the Prime Minister’s decision to face the Chilcot Inquiry:

It is well known that the Prime Minister was a key figure in Britain’s decision to invade Iraq. It is only right that Gordon Brown should explain his role in this disastrous foreign policy failure before asking the British people for their vote.”

This is an excellent result for Nick. Good in its own right: the Prime Minister should be asked about his role in the invasion of Iraq. And good for Nick’s growing stature as leader: once again, as over the Gurkhas and Michael Martin, it is Nick who is making the running, and punching above his weight at Prime Minister’s Questions.

This in stark contrast to David Cameron, whose string of lacklustre Commons’ performances are beginning to be noticed even by his friends at The Spectator. Here’s how the magazine’s Coffee House blog compared the performances of Nick and the Tory leader at this week’s PMQs:

The LibDem leader took a pop at Labour with a very smart weapon. He wondered why the government hadn’t acted to stop RBS lending tax-payers’ money to Kraft which is about to sack Cadburys staff. That’s three bogymen in one. … hate him because they can see he’s capable, plucky and politically shrewd. The house has strange ways of honouring talent. …

Cameron risks turning into the Rafa Benitez of Westminster. He’s living on a reputation which is rapidly fading from memory.

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Posted in Parliament and PMQs | Also tagged , , , and | 2 Comments



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