Brent Central Liberal Democrat candidate Ibrahim Taguri has called for the speedy publication of Sir John Chilcott’s report into the decision to go to war in Iraq. “How can we have trust without truth?” he asks in an article for the New Statesman. He asks how on earth we can contemplate taking military action (a decision he is not happy with) again in that part of the world without learning the lessons from last time:
The course of action then was part of a disastrous foreign policy, and it is for this reason we find ourselves wrangling with the same question a decade later.
The greater urgency is that parliament has again voted to undertake military incursions into Iraq, taking action against Islamic State. A decision I am deeply uncomfortable with, as it appears we find ourselves making the same strategy and policy mistakes without learning from the past.
On 5 November, Britain signalled its intention to send back military troops to Iraq. Followed four days later by President Obama’s declaration of 1,500 “non-combat” troops being deployed to the country.
And yet even as this happens, the Chilcot Inquiry still remains unpublished. How can we possibly intervene in another conflict when the investigation into the failings of the last Iraq war is kept out of the public domain?
We cannot possibly hope to learn from our past mistakes or bring about real humanitarian change in the world, when such important information is kept secret.
Our very presence on the ground would mean that once again our brave service men and women will be in the firing line and at risk of injury and death. It is inevitable.
Do they not deserve the truth? Do we not deserve the truth?
The establishment is yet again protecting itself by failing to publish the Chilcot findings. And yet again the establishment asks brave men and women to sacrifice their lives. Yet again the establishment asks us to put our trust in them.
You can read the whole article here.
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12 Comments
An inquiry should also be held into Libya. Despite being told by many what would happen the Coalition went all gung ho repeating the errors.
The enormity of the crime perpetrated against the Iraqi people with the 2003 invasion is only now becoming clear. The hundreds of thousands of violent deaths, stratospheric increase in mortality rates from the wrecked health system and economy, the annihilation of hope for a generation and sectarian chaos sown across the region is shamefully ignored by prevailing political and media establishment.
A renewed appetite from the Coalition Government for military intervention in the region makes the early publication of Chilcott’s findings all the more significant.
As a post-script I do wonder what our current Liberal Democrat leadership’s position would have been on the invasion of Iraq if they had been in place in 2003. On 15th February 2003 when I marched in London alongside the likes of Charles Kennedy, Shirley Williams, Chris Davies and a million other appalled British people in opposition to the coming conflagration I was truly proud to be a Liberal Democrat.
Seems the current conflict is to cover up and to manipulate/give false reasons for the wrongs of the first.
I would certainly not be proud to be associated with anyone who did not want to do anything tangible to oppose the horrors of the Islamic State. And in that I believe I am in agreement with an overwhelming majority of British Muslims.
Anne, The following article addressing the situation in Libya is illuminating: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-west-is-silent-as-libya-falls-into-the-abyss-9833489.html
Before the disastrous Western intervention my Council regularly hosted study visits by Libyan students and local politicians, and I vividly recall the informed and passionate debate on the meaning of democracy and a just society. Further, I remember too how a group of Libyan youngsters questioned, following attendance of a council meeting I had just chaired, whether the prevailing demographic (i.e. white, male, middle-class and ‘mature in years’) could truly deliver democratic decision making for a whole community. They also questioned the democratic credentials of our (then new) Cabinet and Scrutiny system – coincidentally our (no overall control) Council is now moving back to the committee system of governance, following a Liberal Democrat motion at Full Council. I now often wonder what has happened to these friends in the murderous chaos that is present day Libya.
Hi all,
Anne, I was in favour of the Libyan intervention at the time. My parents are Libyan and I have many family members there. For me the possible humanitarian slaughter that rolled in on convoy from the west in Tripoli and headed to Bengazhi was too much to bear. I felt we had to get involved. The current outcome was always one that was possible. Would I support it again given what has happened since. I really don’t know.
What I do know is that military action on its own is not enough. We can’t then walk away leaving a vacuum and chaos.
Richard, I’m not sure if your comments were aimed at me suggesting that I did not want to do anything about those criminal barbarians. Whatever you want to call them. Please see here for my explanation at the discomfort for the air strikes. http://www.ibrahimtaguri.com/statement_on_iraq_airstrikes_vote It’s the lack of a cohesive strategy that bothers me and the distinct sense of repeating history.
Well done Ibrahim Taguri for getting your article published in The New Statesman.
The conspiracy of silence by the UK Establishment is beyond a disgrace.
More than £10 million of public money has been spent on this report and it sits collecting dust, unpublished.
We have waited five years since Chilcot began. Will Chilcot himself still be alive by the time his report is published?
I look forward to our MPs and Lords “banging on” about this in parliament until the report is published.
There has been nothing much of substance going on in Parliament since the Rose Garden Coalition came to an end some months ago, so why not use the time productively to get this Report out into the open?
Our MPs and Lords should follow Ibrahim’s excellent example.
Good to see Ibrahim taking the initiative on this. Makes me wonder why the Parliamentary party appears to be half asleep.
Chilcott will not want the report published withour the evidence included which someone (Blair?) wants redacted.
The issue is not about getting the report published, the issue is about sections which Chilcott thinks should be published and not be redacted when it is published.
Great article Ibrahim, both here ./ the New Statesman and your statement on the Iraq airstrikes vote. I used my opportunity to speak in the Middle East debates at conference in Glasgow this Autumn and last Autumn to make the same point – that we (the UK, the West in general, the US, Liberal Democrats, etc.) haven’t come up with a strategy for intervention (or not) in the region.
As you say, what’s happening in Libya was always a possibility, but I supported intervention at the time (after Libyan public opinion swung decisively from opposition to support for it). And as bad as things are now, we can’t of course know how much worse they could have been.
I used to live in Syria and have been following events there very closely: there is nothing I wouldn’t give to be able to swap Syria’s current problems for the ones Libya is experiencing.
It’s “Chilcot”.
I get the impression Ibrahim Taguri already knows what he thinks about the Iraq invasion. He certainly seems to be applying his conclusions to the fight against “IS”. It’s not clear to me what lessons will be learned from Chilcot that could change his view.
And I’m amused to see that the myth is being recycled here that the delay is due to censorship by the wicked and all-powerful “Blair”. Remarkable, isn’t it, how that guy still controls the Cabinet Office after all these years?
Ibrahim demonstrates again why he will make an incredible MP, he is simply willing to stand up for what is right!
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
Liberal Democrat English Party Diversity Champion
Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrat (EMLD) – Vice Chair