Asking: What’s Become Of The Chilcot Inquiry Into The War In Iraq?

Adam Lovejoy writes from London: As honourable members in the Commons vote to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into the Libor scam that was run by major banks for several years, a big question mark still hangs over another inquiry that has basically disappeared from the radar.

Yes, I’m talking about the Chilcot inquiry into the war in Iraq that was supposed to get to the bottom of things and establish whether Tony Blair lied to the British people and dragged the country into a bloody conflict on false pretences or whether it was just an honest mistake on his part about those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam had never had.

Initially, the Chilcot inquiry was supposed to deliver its conclusions before last Christmas. But then it was decided that it needed more time to analyse all the documents, even though it was pretty clear from the evidence provided at its hearings, especially in the final stages, that the war in Iraq was a dodgy war started under dodgy circumstances by, yes, you’ve guessed it, a slimy PM. Some of the witnesses basically accused Blair and his cronies of distorting the picture and colluding with George Bush.

But it seems that no one these days dares to criticise that devout Christian Blair. And even though the inquiry headed by Sir John Chilcot started its investigation under a Labour government and currently it’s a supposedly totally different government running things, no one seems to be keen on making life difficult for Blair. What’s more, the current PM, David Cameron, has so much respect for Tony that, as rumour goes, he is hoping to have the Chilcot inquiry come up with a watered-down report – at some point in the very distant future. But not now, not this year, when Mr Blair is planning a political comeback in Britain.

Now, if you’re burning with desire to find out what the hell is going on here Stirring Trouble can reveal an astonishing truth: pretty much nothing. The official version is that the Chilcot inquiry is currently ‘analysing’ the written and verbal evidence and is drafting its report. Yep, lovingly compiling that precious document, picking words, sentences and whole phrases that would not sound too offensive to the people who started the war and are now making a good living out of it.

And if we call a spade a spade, we might even conclude that the Chilcot inquiry might simply come up with nothing. Considering that it was tasked with finding out whether a left-wing government started a war on false pretences. Yes, a left-wing government is not like a right-wing government that had, for example, been presiding when the Bloody Sunday massacre took place forty years ago in Northern Ireland. Now that was a something worth investigating. That really mattered. In fact, it mattered so much that after blowing 200 million smackers on it the new government told the police to open a criminal investigation into events of four decades ago.

But let’s continue to pose edgy hard-hitting questions: does it worry anyone that all the members of the panel in the Chilcot inquiry owe their careers to Mr Blair? It obviously depends how you look at it. If you’re a Labour supporter and a great fan of Blair, then it doesn’t really bother you. And as Labour supporters seem to be shaping public opinion in Britain, with 90 per cent of the media working for them, then it shouldn’t really be an issue, now should it?

Yes, inquiries come and go. And it all depends really who is calling the shots at the time and decides what should be made public and what kept in the dark.

Spooky stuff really.

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