To go to war, or not to go to war
by Aminah Khan
The Inquiry’s first public hearings clearly address the issue of whether or not Britain should have gone to war in the first place. This was just one of the things discussed when I interviewed Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson in the run up to the Inquiry’s launch. Swinson is shadow minister for Foreign Affairs, an outspoken critic of the war who marched among thousands in a demonstration in Glasgow in 2002, and a supporter of the Digest. She condemned the initial plan for a private inquiry, which she felt was Tony Blair’s and Gordon Brown’s idea, saying: “I can see why they did it. It was a dreadful decision and they were both at the heart of it. Gordon Brown signed the cheques and Tony Blair was chief cheerleader for George Bush”
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“The UN weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix were in Iraq to try to see whether or not Iraq was complying with various United Nations’ resoulutions. They wanted more time to do that but ultimately the Americans and the UK government decided that the threat was too great.
“The now famous dossier of apparently evidence with the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that could be launched within forty five minutes, much of it was obviously subsequently discredited but at the time that is what was presented and the case was put to MPs and the House of Commons did actually vote for British troops to go into Iraq. The Liberal democrats, my party, all voted against it as did a significant number of Labour backbenchers and a handful of conservatives”
Q:What do you think the government’s real reasons were for sending troops to Iraq?
“You can speculate about what the real reasons were. Whether or not it was power and security, whether there was an issue of oil, whether it was a desire for regime change. A lot of that was denied and subsequently a lot has been made of the fact that Saddam Hussein had an appalling human rights record, which is certainly true but there’s a lot of different regimes that have appalling human rights records that we don’t go and invade. So I think the real reason is still unknown. There’s obviously very many theories about what it was.”
Q: So what do you think the reasons should have been for not going to Iraq?
“It was illegal; we didn’t have United Nations explicit resolutions so there was no international consensus. Force should be used as a means of last resort and there was other avenues open to the extent that even the weapons inspectors themselves wanted more time so I think there’s a multitude of reasons for us not going to war with Iraq but unfortunately that’s the path that was taken.”
4 Responses to “To go to war, or not to go to war”
Comment from Chris Ames
Time November 18, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Yes Aminah, why don’t you interview someone who supported the war? How about David Blunkett?
Er… http://iraqinquirydigest.org/?p=2756
Comment from Aminah
Time November 18, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I appreciate your point Stan and as an objective reporter it’s important to present both sides which is why I interviewed both Swinson and Blunkett in order to present the views of people who took different stands on the issue. In the interest of objective and impartial reporting I prefer not to express my views but only those of whom I interviewed and clearly demarcating their views as views and not established fact so anyone reading this is free to draw their own conclusions.
Comment from Stan Rosenthal
Time November 19, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Very commendable, Aminah. I wish other reporters would use the same approach.
Chris, I obviously forgot this with so much stuff being posted on this site. Anyway thanks for reminding me and putting that link in here. I think it always helps to have the pros and cons of an issue accessible on the same web page so that people can make up their own minds.
Comment from Stan Rosenthal
Time November 18, 2009 at 5:56 pm
And now in the interests of balanced reporting, Aminah, how about interviewing someone who supported the war?