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| My son died in vain. But at least the world now sees Blair’s moral guilt | My son died in vain. But at least the world now sees Blair’s moral guilt |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| The Iraq war was a fiasco waged on the basis of scandalous lies. My son Tom, aged 20, died serving his country in this war. If I didn’t already know it before today, I know it now: Tom died in vain. He and his comrades died brutal deaths in a conflict that did not have to take place. Even now, I watch the reports from Iraq: 250 people blown up last weekend on the streets of Baghdad in this war without end. Is this what our soldiers fought for? | The Iraq war was a fiasco waged on the basis of scandalous lies. My son Tom, aged 20, died serving his country in this war. If I didn’t already know it before today, I know it now: Tom died in vain. He and his comrades died brutal deaths in a conflict that did not have to take place. Even now, I watch the reports from Iraq: 250 people blown up last weekend on the streets of Baghdad in this war without end. Is this what our soldiers fought for? |
| Chilcot was not a court of law and it was not in his remit to look at the legality of the Iraq war. But as far as I am concerned this inquiry was judge and jury. Tony Blair, the man who misled parliament and manufactured and massaged the intelligence underpinning the decision to send our troops to war, stands morally convicted. He is guilty as charged. For me, that will do. Yes, Blair and the others who assisted him should and could be brought to account under the law through the courts. And along with the other bereaved familes of dead service personnel, we will be looking in closer detail at the Chilcot report: it gives us a launchpad to go forward and search for more answers. But Chilcot is clear: those who perpetrated this fiasco are morally guilty. This finding doesn’t bring my son back, but it is at least a comfort. | Chilcot was not a court of law and it was not in his remit to look at the legality of the Iraq war. But as far as I am concerned this inquiry was judge and jury. Tony Blair, the man who misled parliament and manufactured and massaged the intelligence underpinning the decision to send our troops to war, stands morally convicted. He is guilty as charged. For me, that will do. Yes, Blair and the others who assisted him should and could be brought to account under the law through the courts. And along with the other bereaved familes of dead service personnel, we will be looking in closer detail at the Chilcot report: it gives us a launchpad to go forward and search for more answers. But Chilcot is clear: those who perpetrated this fiasco are morally guilty. This finding doesn’t bring my son back, but it is at least a comfort. |
| I had been angry about the length of time it has taken to get here. And again this morning, the families were given just three hours to read the 150-page summary before it was made public. Ministers, in contrast, were reportedly given a full 24 hours to pore over the summary, during which they were free to take advice on how best to spin it. But on every aspect, from the meetings Blair had with Bush, the lack of transparency in the cabinet and the exaggeration of intelligence to the failure to provide the armed forces with basic equipment and the inadequacies of planning for the post-Saddam era, Chilcot has confounded my fears of a whitewash. His report has dealt with everything, and we, the families after all that we have gone through in the last 13 years, can feel that we have been vindicated. It has been a long struggle. | I had been angry about the length of time it has taken to get here. And again this morning, the families were given just three hours to read the 150-page summary before it was made public. Ministers, in contrast, were reportedly given a full 24 hours to pore over the summary, during which they were free to take advice on how best to spin it. But on every aspect, from the meetings Blair had with Bush, the lack of transparency in the cabinet and the exaggeration of intelligence to the failure to provide the armed forces with basic equipment and the inadequacies of planning for the post-Saddam era, Chilcot has confounded my fears of a whitewash. His report has dealt with everything, and we, the families after all that we have gone through in the last 13 years, can feel that we have been vindicated. It has been a long struggle. |
| My 20-year-old boy Tom was one of six military policemen ambushed and killed by Iraqi insurgents in an abandoned police station in Majar al-Kabir on 24 June 2003. Just two days before, soldiers from the Parachute Regiment had been attacked in the same spot, escaping only after they summoned help from the Quick Response Force. We later learned that the six dead had been sent to Majar al-Kabir without body armour, with too little ammunition, and without the Iridium satellite phones that would have enabled them to call for help. | My 20-year-old boy Tom was one of six military policemen ambushed and killed by Iraqi insurgents in an abandoned police station in Majar al-Kabir on 24 June 2003. Just two days before, soldiers from the Parachute Regiment had been attacked in the same spot, escaping only after they summoned help from the Quick Response Force. We later learned that the six dead had been sent to Majar al-Kabir without body armour, with too little ammunition, and without the Iridium satellite phones that would have enabled them to call for help. |
| That’s it, I thought. We are not going to get any justice here for the lads | That’s it, I thought. We are not going to get any justice here for the lads |
| But it was years before we got the full story. We were not represented at the army’s board of inquiry, which was conducted behind closed doors with no independent presence. Instead, once the army had finished investigating the army, we were invited to Whitehall to be given a summary of the findings before meeting Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary at the time. | But it was years before we got the full story. We were not represented at the army’s board of inquiry, which was conducted behind closed doors with no independent presence. Instead, once the army had finished investigating the army, we were invited to Whitehall to be given a summary of the findings before meeting Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary at the time. |
| On the day, we families were ushered into a room and briefed by senior officers. They handed us the board’s summary – a stack of A4 paper as thick as a paperback – and some yellow highlighter pens. We had just 45 minutes to pick out points to raise with Hoon. | On the day, we families were ushered into a room and briefed by senior officers. They handed us the board’s summary – a stack of A4 paper as thick as a paperback – and some yellow highlighter pens. We had just 45 minutes to pick out points to raise with Hoon. |
| I’m still angry at how tame our questions were. We barely knew what to ask. We hadn’t had time to read the summary, and it was another month before we received the full report, which filled six lever-arch files. After a short time Hoon concluded: “The Redcap deaths could not have been prevented.” | I’m still angry at how tame our questions were. We barely knew what to ask. We hadn’t had time to read the summary, and it was another month before we received the full report, which filled six lever-arch files. After a short time Hoon concluded: “The Redcap deaths could not have been prevented.” |
| That’s it, I thought. We are not going to get any justice here for the lads. Let the battle commence. | That’s it, I thought. We are not going to get any justice here for the lads. Let the battle commence. |
| I didn’t start out anti-establishment. When Tom went to Iraq, I worried about his welfare – but I believed what the prime minister told us about weapons of mass destruction, and I believed the army would do its best to look after him. I even accepted his death – until I realised I’d been lied to. | I didn’t start out anti-establishment. When Tom went to Iraq, I worried about his welfare – but I believed what the prime minister told us about weapons of mass destruction, and I believed the army would do its best to look after him. I even accepted his death – until I realised I’d been lied to. |
| I have since discovered how badly the army let Tom and his comrades down, and how shamelessly it covered up its misdeeds. I protested at the 2004 Labour party conference, when Tony Blair said “Iraq will not be on the agenda” – and proved him wrong. I put Iraq back on the agenda in 2005, when I stood against him in the general election, as an independent candidate in his Sedgfield constituency. I’ve lost my heartbroken wife Sally, who could not come to terms with the savage way in which Tom died. And I’ve finally seen Chilcot complete his report. | I have since discovered how badly the army let Tom and his comrades down, and how shamelessly it covered up its misdeeds. I protested at the 2004 Labour party conference, when Tony Blair said “Iraq will not be on the agenda” – and proved him wrong. I put Iraq back on the agenda in 2005, when I stood against him in the general election, as an independent candidate in his Sedgfield constituency. I’ve lost my heartbroken wife Sally, who could not come to terms with the savage way in which Tom died. And I’ve finally seen Chilcot complete his report. |
| I’m still struggling to understand how my country could go to war on the falsehood of WMDs without a UN resolution. How parliament and the nation could be misled and intelligence chiefs could allow their reports to be exaggerated and misrepresented. | I’m still struggling to understand how my country could go to war on the falsehood of WMDs without a UN resolution. How parliament and the nation could be misled and intelligence chiefs could allow their reports to be exaggerated and misrepresented. |
| The Iraq war left 179 British service personnel dead and another 6,000 wounded, many with life-changing injuries. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children have perished. Billions of pounds have been spent. And for what? The country is still in meltdown. | The Iraq war left 179 British service personnel dead and another 6,000 wounded, many with life-changing injuries. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children have perished. Billions of pounds have been spent. And for what? The country is still in meltdown. |
| At last we have an official report which, to my mind, points the finger of accountability in the right direction – at Tony Blair and the cronies who helped him deceive the nation. | At last we have an official report which, to my mind, points the finger of accountability in the right direction – at Tony Blair and the cronies who helped him deceive the nation. |