We need honest debate, not a bureaucratic inquiry

This article was published in Spiked Online 9 December 2009

We wouldn’t need another bloody inquiry into Iraq if there had been some serious moral and political discussion about the war.

On 19 March 2003, 412 British members of parliament voted in favour of deploying UK forces in Iraq. Only 149 voted against. Nearly seven years later, as the bombs explode once more in Baghdad, the consequences of that decision continue to be felt.

The consequences can be seen in the UK, too. Veterans of the ‘illegal war’ lobby still want closure; duped MPs still want some sort of explanation; and former prime minister Tony Blair, if his ever-proliferating enemies are to be believed, still wants hanging. The 2004 inquiry lead by Lord Hutton into the death of British weapons inspector David Kelly in 2003, which also covered the notorious dodgy dossier that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq, didn’t provide such closure.