A Tangled Web

What the Butler Saw



It's finally out! The report by Lord Butler dealing with the intelligence 'flaws' in the run-up to the Iraq war is now in the public domain. The report does indeed highlight some discrepancies in intelligence gathering, though I take a slightly differing viewpoint on the whole debacle from the slanted BBC.



Firstly, the intelligence presented to HM Government contained a number of caveats regarding the preparedness of Saddam's regime to deploy WMD's. Butler concludes 'that Iraq did not have significant - if any - stocks of chemical of biological weapons in a state fit for deployment...' Nonetheless, as we know, plenty of evidence has been found concerning the available ingredients required to construct WMD's had the intent, or leeway afforded by a supine Allied Coalition, been to hand.



Secondly, if the intelligence services included the numerous caveats in their assessment of Iraq's international potency, why didn't the Government widen the scope of reasoning for imminent combat to include the evil acts perpetrated by Saddam against his own people? For example, the US administration concentrated as much on the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussain as they did on his aspirations to develop and possibly utilise WMD's. Our Government focused very much on the latter. The consequences being, should we face a similar scenario in the future, the public will be even more sceptical of a Prime Minister who chooses to excuse his eagerness for conflict - however righteous the cause may be.



It is no use Tony Blair eating humble pie in the gaze of the electorate. He has only done so to manipulate public sentiment and shift the primary focus on to the competence of our intelligence services. America, Britain and others were right to go to war and remove Saddam from power. If the Labour government had been a little more candid on the multiplicity of reasons for doing so, there would have been no need for Butler.