Go Ahead, Justify

The Iraq Enquiry.

I simply had to touch on this at some point. By now we've had a number of the big guns speak, or justify, whatsoever you believe they're attempting to do.

Their are flaws to this procedure, and many people have been complaining.

1. It's not a legal enquiry, just a political one (alth0ugh that's hardly unusual in domestic situations)
2. Our politico's are under no oath whatsoever
3. The documents being published as a result are being limited

However, Sir John Chilcot, the chair of the Inquiry, has stated that he will attempt to publish as much information as possible, and as much as human beings are cynical by nature what's to say he cannot be believed on this one? It's a matter of opinion after all, and a vast improvement on the politicians that called for almost all of the documents related to the military interference in Iraq by the British (and America as our ally) to be shielded from the public gaze and, more importantly, scrutiny.

There have certainly been some interesting quotes emerge as a result of politicians more offering, as always, their opinions on events as opposed to factual accounts. These include Jack Straw asserting apparently wrongly that weapons inspectors could not access various Iraqi sites in 2002, Blair saying he would "do it all again" and Claire Short going on an angry vent, defending the honour of Gordon Brown as she went, a man she described as "very unhappy and marginalised (by Blair)". Overall, this is rather thrilling stuff, and it will be interesting to discover what the highly charged testimonies of some of our most senior politicians will produce in the form a report, made by some of the most prominent civil servants of the last few decades.

Finally, there's a little point that the press have continually, but quietly, made in relation to the enquiry and all the complaints surrounding it; the Americans have yet to have a public inquiry into any aspect of the Iraq War, whereas in the UK the Kelly Inquiry already took place years before this current enquiry. Although our politicians aren't being called to legal account, opinions are certainly being formed as a result of their own testimonies, and this must surely reflect a degree of both democracy and military accountability within the UK today.