Andrew Turner, the Island’s MP, has criticized the Government’s poor handling of the proposed inquiry into the Iraq War.
On 15th June, Gordon Brown announced that there would finally be an inquiry into the Iraq war, an inquiry the Conservative Party has been calling for since the invasion in 2003. In his announcement, Mr Brown stated that the inquiry would be held in private, and that no blame would be apportioned. Less than two weeks later, Mr Brown made an embarrassing U-turn. Following pressure from the Conservative Party, Labour backbenchers, the media and the public for an open inquiry, Mr Brown backtracked, saying that it would be up to the chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, to decide which sessions were heard in public.
Mr Turner said:
“The initial proposals for the inquiry were wholly inadequate. The point of an inquiry is to learn what mistakes were made, who made them and why, and most importantly how can we learn from those mistakes in future.
“Iraq has sorely tested the trust between the military and the Government who sent them into war; it highlighted inadequate funding that led to equipment shortages that in some cases cost lives; we cannot afford a whitewash in Whitehall on such an important issue. Less still, can we afford to blunder into another illegal war. We owe it to the families of the servicemen who have been killed or injured since the invasion and to those are still serving in Afghanistan and across the world. If the Iraq War had not taken place, British troops would not have been diverted from Afghanistan. This d gave the Taliban time to regroup and our forces in Afghanistan are now suffering the consequences.”
Mr Turner continued:
“If this latest announcement does mean that the majority of the inquiry will be held in public, then I welcome it. It is yet another example of this Government isolating themselves – even from many within their own party – and sitting on the wrong side of the argument. It happened with 42 days detention without trial, it happened with the Ghurkhas and it is now happening with the Iraq War inquiry. I voted against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and have waited six years for this inquiry to find out exactly how and why the Government led us into this situation. We simply cannot afford to get this wrong.”
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