Chilcot The Point

There seems to be some confusion of why we are having an inquiry, especially since it seems rather useless, embarrassing and a little late. But there’s actually a reason.

It’s called democracy. And in a liberal society, which in Britain may often seem somewhat stretching the imagination, we nevertheless have to the right to question our politicians. Personally I think we should be questioning more, but let’s start with Blair and this Chilcot Inquiry.

What appears to be the biggest counter argument to putting this inquiry on; is the potential for damaging foreign policy. Ok I can buy that. But wait, wouldn’t most accept the definition of a tyrant as a leader, who kills, tortures and most importantly doesn’t listen to his people. How exactly does Blair not fit this bill? We would be the height of hypocrisy if we did have this inquiry, frankly there should be a trail. Another factor, is our foreign not already rather embarrassing? After all, most of the world over, Britain is labelled as American’s lapdog… ouch.

You would like a credible foreign policy, ok then. How about not invading a country without a next step? How about not invading a country when the possibility of ‘winning’ isn’t even achievable? Or even better yet, how about just supplying our men with enough armour, weapons and protection, so that we don’t have to keep bringing their corpses home?

You talk of Churchill taking the right steps. And yes against Hitler, going to war was probably the only option. But what has history shown us? That England and the US sticking its nose in, and getting involved without a proper plan for further down the road, really does not work. Germany after the war, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq to name a few (sadly I really could continue…)

This is foreign policy at its worse. It refuses to learn from its past mistakes. Insists that, with postcolonial grandeur, the West knows best, before it marches in, gets thousands killed and then doesn’t know what to do next.

I don’t deny that we, as supposedly liberal, anti-despots peoples, should be standing up for the disenfranchised. So anyone up for invading China? No one going to go and suggest that we send some soldiers over to Mugabe any time soon? You, want to know why? China holds over half of the US economy is its hand, and the good old US of A knows how to pick a despot. And sadly we in Britain have fallen hook, line and sinker.

Some say this means that we won’t be able to take Britain to war again. I really don’t believe this. I wish I did. But sadly men the world over have found reasons to fight since the year dot, and probably they will be doing when the world ends. Frankly the more obstacles in the way of declaring war, with an emphasis on finding peaceful solutions seems to me a rather utopian hope. A John Lennon like dream, wouldn’t it be nice if this were a real possibility, rather than a scoffed at joke?

There is also a suggestion of standing up for a citizen’s rights, a cause I utterly support, but where to start?

Who has all their rights, and how many of these liberties must be sacrificed for another’s wellbeing? Somehow I doubt a great many Afghans can tell the difference between how bad it was ten years ago and now. After all, where was 9/11 celebrated? And guess what a great many still, don’t like the USA. This may sound as if I condone violence against Afghanistan, which I don’t. Broad-brush strokes of claiming civil liberties is what politicians do when, normally they want to remove these rights. I ask a simple question, when in the last forty years, has a war been successful? If we look at the countries that the USA and Britain keep stepping into and ‘helping’, how many can claim their rights, or simply a better standard of living?

Many will say that we need to provide a strong united front against the future risks from Iran and/or North Korea. But how can we separate ourselves from them if we are not liberal? If we do not try our criminals, test our politicians and root out those that have maliciously lied to the public, how can we say to anyone, ‘this is how a country should be run, this is a democracy?’