Suicide bombers and gunmen in the Iraqi town of Balad kill at least 35 people in an attack by ISIS at a Shitte shrine on July 8 (XINHUA)

 

Less than two weeks after the Brexit referendum, the long-awaited Report of the Iraq Inquiry into the Iraq War, or the Chilcot Report, has slammed the invasion and heavily criticized former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

 

Describing the military action in Iraq instigated by the United States and the UK in 2003 as an "invasion," the report says the UK Government's decision to participate in the campaign was based on flawed intelligence and inadequate planning.

 

Besides Iraqi fatalities, estimates of which range approximately from 105,000 to 601,000, the war caused the dislocation of tens of thousands of people and led to tens of thousands more living in misery. The end of Saddam Hussein's strongman politics did not bring freedom and well-being to the country and its people, but instead, led to frequent terrorist attacks and extremist violence in the region at large.

 

The invasion has severely undermined the geopolitical balance in the Middle East as it toppled Iran's old rival, Hussein's Sunni government. Tehran subsequently established a Shiite alliance, whose arc of influence spread from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, which in turn gave rise to strong opposition from Sunni countries led by Saudi Arabia.

 

The outcome of the UK public inquiry into the nation's role in the Iraq War was published on July 6. The 12-volume, 2.6-million-word report, which took seven years to produce and cost an estimated 10 million pounds ($13 million), aimed to reveal the truth behind Britain's involvement in Iraq between mid-2001 and July 2009.

 

The Inquiry

 

The report found that "the judgments about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq's alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction were presented with a certainty that was not justified" and that the war was therefore "not a last resort." The British Government also underestimated the consequences of the invasion, despite explicit warnings. "The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate," the Inquiry found.

 

The report blasts Blair, who followed in the footsteps of former U.S. President George W. Bush and dragged his country into a controversial war which could have been avoided.

 

Blair responded to the accusation with a marathon news conference during which he was deeply contrite and expressed a willingness to "accept full responsibility for those points of criticism." He said, "The decision to go to war in Iraq was the hardest, most momentous and agonizing decision I took in my 10 years as British prime minister." He still believes, however, that he made the decision out of national interests and that the world was safer as a result of the removal of Saddam.

 

Unfortunately for Blair, a significant portion of the British public didn't buy his story. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has suggested that Blair should face a war crimes investigation. After all, some 179 British soldiers died due to the UK's military intervention in Iraq.

 

The invasion opened a Pandora's Box in the Middle East, and the biggest victims of the war have been ordinary people in Iraq and in neighboring states affected by the Iraqi regime change. According to CNN reports, plenty of Iraqi interviewees reminisce about the good old days of Saddam Hussein, when terrorist bombings were rare, when there were no blast walls and few checkpoints.

 

 

A UK transport aircraft carries humanitarian aid to Iraq on August 10, 2014 (XINHUA/AFP)

 

Terrorism and refugees

 

To some extent, the Syrian civil war and the relentless expansion of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) are consequences of the Middle East geopolitical turmoil caused by the Iraq War.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee their homelands, where superpowers tussle for resources and ISIS engages in the wanton killing of innocent people. A majority of the refugees have headed for Europe due to its geographic vicinity and their aspirations for a better life, posing an unprecedented challenge to the safety, policymaking and unity of the continent. EU countries have tightened their border controls, and the EU looks set to lose one of its core members—the UK—in the near future.

 

Terrorist activities around the world—from the Russian plane crash in Egypt, to the bloodshed in Brussels, to the attack on the gay community in Orlando, the United States—continue to threaten global peace and stability. Thus, discussions and reflections on the Iraq War are still highly relevant in today's world.

 

Reflection

 

The belated UK Inquiry, though reflective in nature, can hardly be seen to have a great impact, as both Blair and Bush refuse to admit that waging the war was wrong in the first place.

 

Nonetheless, the UK has in effect returned to the common sense view that "war must be the last resort" and it should not engage in unnecessary conflicts.

 

Will Britain now think and act independently or continue to follow the lead of the United States?

 

Since the end of the World War II, successive UK governments have followed in the footsteps of the United States when it comes to major policy decisions either in the UN or in NATO.

 

Over the past few decades, wherever U.S. troops have been deployed, British soldiers have also appeared. The Iraq War, however, has pushed Britain to reconsider the cost of their unconditional support of U.S. decisions. In fact, Britain's foreign policy has already blazed a path toward independence with notable events such as the UK parliament's vote against military intervention in Syria in 2013, which the United States had urged the UK Government to support, and the UK's accession to the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

 

Striking a balance between managing future UK-U.S. relations while accommodating national interests will be a challenging task.

 

One of the stated goals of U.S. intervention in Iraq was to bring about a "regime change" and to foster the country's democratization. For Iraq to establish a free system of government similar to some in the West, however, is an impossible mission at the present stage. Saddam Hussein was a "dictator" according to Western ideology, but Iraq after his execution is more chaotic and dangerous than it had been for half a century.

 

The peoples of the world each have their own history, culture and unique social conditions. A political system which functions well in one geographical area during a particular era may not work effectively elsewhere or in other periods.

 

The war in Iraq and the Chilcot Report offer a valuable lesson for leaders of the UK and other nations: Adopt an approach that is realistic rather than idealistic when dealing with international affairs and be mindful of possible disastrous consequences stemming from interference into other countries' internal affairs.

 

The author is an associate professor on Marxism with China's Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

 

Copyedited by Dominic James Madar

 

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