The Chilcot Report

[Dark Knight]

2.6 million words and no chance of a prosecution or by the looks of things an apology or acknowledgement of any wrong doing
looking like quite the waste of time

[Silver_Shiney]

and you expected....?

[Dark Knight]

I got exactly what I expected, a waste of time and public money, the only winner in this, is the bloke who got paid a stupid amount of money to tell us all what we already knew
Blair lied
2 words not 2.6 million

[Silver_Shiney]

indeed

[qbman1]

...but just think of the number of bureaucrats and media bods it has kept in "gainful" employment. Singlehandedly shored up the economy for 9 years !

[Silver_Shiney]

silly of me to forget that, really...

[qbman1]

It's really no different to the Irish getting all the labourers to build useless stone walls after the potato famine to enable them to support their families

[Silver_Shiney]

It's really no different to the Irish getting all the labourers to build useless stone walls after the potato famine to enable them to support their families

Off Topic

I thought Hadrian predated that event....

Ah, so THAT'S what that button does...

[towny44]

It seems to me that we had a mandate to deal with the situation in 1990 but didn't finish the job, and George Bush was humiliated. Then along comes George W Bush, who decides to save daddy's ego and sets off on the warpath to finish the job off - for which we no longer had a mandate.

And now Blair is saying the world is a better place because of it. Hello?

There may be a grain or two of truth in your comments Alan, but we all need to remember that the lead up to this action/invasion/war all took place in the 2 years after 9/11 which created a seismic shift in US foreign policy.
Clearly different leaders in the US and the UK might have resulted in a different outcome, but any US president faced with a similar atrocity would have needed to take some sort of retaliatory action.
Now whether Saddam and Iraq were the correct target is another question, the answer to which might be revealed somewhere in the 6 volumes of the Chilcot report.

[qbman1]

It's really no different to the Irish getting all the labourers to build useless stone walls after the potato famine to enable them to support their families

Off Topic

I thought Hadrian predated that event....

Ah, so THAT'S what that button does...

You really shouldn't have told us that - it will quickly become the most-used function around here !!

[qbman1]

It seems to me that we had a mandate to deal with the situation in 1990 but didn't finish the job, and George Bush was humiliated. Then along comes George W Bush, who decides to save daddy's ego and sets off on the warpath to finish the job off - for which we no longer had a mandate.

And now Blair is saying the world is a better place because of it. Hello?

There may be a grain or two of truth in your comments Alan, but we all need to remember that the lead up to this action/invasion/war all took place in the 2 years after 9/11 which created a seismic shift in US foreign policy.
Clearly different leaders in the US and the UK might have resulted in a different outcome, but any US president faced with a similar atrocity would have needed to take some sort of retaliatory action.
Now whether Saddam and Iraq were the correct target is another question, the answer to which might be revealed somewhere in the 6 volumes of the Chilcot report.

...and, in that case, were we (meaning Mr B) right to blindly tag along ?

[Silver_Shiney]

It seems to me that we had a mandate to deal with the situation in 1990 but didn't finish the job, and George Bush was humiliated. Then along comes George W Bush, who decides to save daddy's ego and sets off on the warpath to finish the job off - for which we no longer had a mandate.

And now Blair is saying the world is a better place because of it. Hello?

There may be a grain or two of truth in your comments Alan, but we all need to remember that the lead up to this action/invasion/war all took place in the 2 years after 9/11 which created a seismic shift in US foreign policy.
Clearly different leaders in the US and the UK might have resulted in a different outcome, but any US president faced with a similar atrocity would have needed to take some sort of retaliatory action.
Now whether Saddam and Iraq were the correct target is another question, the answer to which might be revealed somewhere in the 6 volumes of the Chilcot report.

I agree to an extent, John, but none of the 9/11 terrorists were from, or funded by, Iraq. Indeed, my understanding is that Saddam, even in his inexcusable brutality, had no truck with the likes of Al-Qaeda. It is my belief (which may, of course, be wrong) that the retaliatory attacks for 9/11 were an excuse to go after Saddam.

[towny44]

It seems to me that we had a mandate to deal with the situation in 1990 but didn't finish the job, and George Bush was humiliated. Then along comes George W Bush, who decides to save daddy's ego and sets off on the warpath to finish the job off - for which we no longer had a mandate.

And now Blair is saying the world is a better place because of it. Hello?

There may be a grain or two of truth in your comments Alan, but we all need to remember that the lead up to this action/invasion/war all took place in the 2 years after 9/11 which created a seismic shift in US foreign policy.
Clearly different leaders in the US and the UK might have resulted in a different outcome, but any US president faced with a similar atrocity would have needed to take some sort of retaliatory action.
Now whether Saddam and Iraq were the correct target is another question, the answer to which might be revealed somewhere in the 6 volumes of the Chilcot report.

...and, in that case, were we (meaning Mr B) right to blindly tag along ?

I think Chilcot has already answered that, but Blair was obviously carried along with the tide of US hawks needing to avenge 9/11 and he clearly did not have the b***s, or maybe brains, to question them.

[qbman1]

I suspect the balls were crushed long before that by the fragrant Cherie !

[Manoverboard]

Y'all have to remember that the Bushes are all cowboys at heart and that a Texas Ranger always gets his man.

Why I recall ridin past Austin, in Texas, a while aback when a fellar said " Down thar is whar the Bush clan live ".

He was pointing to the Chisholm / Chisum Trail of John Wayne n chums fame.