Donald Rumsfeld, Architect of Iraq War, Has Died

Jul 1, 2021 • Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. defense secretary who was the main architect of the 2003 Iraq war, died at age 88.

UK Court Protects Tony Blair from War Crimes Suit

The UK High Court has blocked a war crimes suit against Tony Blair for the Iraq invasion, but that won't stop the effort to hold him accountable, says author and activist Chris Nineham

Should Tony Blair Be Punished for the Iraq War? - UpFront

‪Inside Story - Could War in Iraq Have Been Averted?‬

A British inquiry concludes the 2003 invasion went badly wrong, and Iraqis are still living with the consequences. Presenter: Martine Dennis

What Will Be Blair's Legacy In Iraq?

Tony Blair: People Are Still 'Very Abusive' to Me 10 Years After the Iraq War

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair has told how people are still “very abusive” to him 10 years after the Iraq War, adding that he has given up trying to “persuade people it was the right decision”.

In comments which could be interpreted as self-pitying Mr Blair said that it did not matter whether the continuing controversy about Iraq had “taken a toll on me”.

He said that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was “20 times as bad” as Syria’s President Assad but admitted that it would take a “generation” to make Iraq safer than it was in 2003.

Mr Blair is still cr[i]ticised for sending British troops into Iraq on March 20, 2003 in the mistaken belief that its Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

In the weeks leading up to the invasion, more than one million people marched through London against the Iraq invasion.

Asked in a candid interview on BBC2’s Newsnight whether he minded if “people call you a liar, some people call you a war criminal, protesters follow you; it’s difficult to walk down the street in a country”, he replied: “It really doesn’t matter whether it’s taken its toll on me.

“The fact is yes there are people who will be very abusive, by the way I do walk down the street and by the way I won an election in 2005 after Iraq. However, yes it remains extremely divisive and very difficult.”

Mr Blair conceded that he had “long since given up trying to persuade people it was the right decision”. » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Lies That Launched a War
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was sanctioned largely because of claims the country had weapons of mass destruction. The source of some of the alleged intelligence behind the claims was an Iraqi defector living in Germany, someone who has now admitted the evidence he submitted was false. Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips reports

WikiLeaks Release: WikiLeaks to Release Three Million Secret US Documents
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The WikiLeaks website has announced it plans to publish nearly three million more secret US documents in its next mass release of confidential material.


It would be seven times larger than its release last month, when it posted some 400,000 secret documents about the war in Iraq on its site.

"Next release is 7x the size of the Iraq War Logs. Intense pressure over it for months. Keep us strong," WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed, adding a link to a donations website.

"The coming months will see a new world, where global history is redefined." it added in a later message.

It would be WikiLeaks' third mass release of classified documents after it published 77,000 secret US files on the Afghan conflict in July. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, November 22, 2010

Nick Clegg's 'Illegal' Iraq War Gaffe Prompts Legal Warning
THE GUARDIAN: Coalition in confusion as deputy prime minister pronounces invasion 'illegal' at dispatch box

Nick Clegg was tonight forced to clarify his position on the Iraq war after he stood up at the dispatch box of the House of Commons and pronounced the invasion illegal.

The deputy prime minister insisted he was speaking in a personal capacity, as a leading international lawyer warned that the statement by a government minister in such a formal setting could increase the chances of charges against Britain in international courts.

Philippe Sands, professor of law at University College London, said: "A public statement by a government minister in parliament as to the legal situation would be a statement that an international court would be interested in, in forming a view as to whether or not the war was lawful."

The warning came after a faltering performance by Clegg in the Commons when he stood in for David Cameron at prime minister's questions. The deputy prime minister made an initial mistake when he announced that the government would close the Yarl's Wood centre as it ends the detention of children awaiting deportation. The Home Office was forced to issue a statement saying that the family unit at Yarl's Wood would close but that the rest of the centre would remain open.

Shortly before that slip-up, Clegg threw the government's position concerning the legality of the Iraq war into confusion when, at the end of heated exchanges with Jack Straw, foreign secretary at the time of the war, Clegg said: "We may have to wait for his memoirs, but perhaps one day he will account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all: the illegal invasion of Iraq."

Clegg's remarks could be legally significant because he was standing at the government dispatch box in the Commons. (+ plus video) >>> Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent | Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Iraq Inquiry: Saddam Posed Very Limited Threat to UK, Ex-MI5 Chief Says
THE GUARDIAN: Eliza Manningham-Buller tells Chilcot inquiry that Iraq invasion radicalised part of a generation of Muslims

Eliza Manningham-Buller. Photo: The Guardian
The former MI5 director general Eliza Manningham-Buller today delivered a withering assessment of the case for war against Iraq.

Manningham-Buller said the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was low and that the US-led invasion in 2003 had done more harm than good.

Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, she said Saddam's threat to the UK was "very limited and containable".

In evidence that undermined the case for war presented by the former prime minister Tony Blair, she was asked whether it was feared Saddam could have linked terrorists to weapons of mass destruction, facilitating their use against the west.

"It certainly wasn't of concern in either the short term or the medium term to me or my colleagues," she replied.

Manningham-Buller said the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan had radicalised parts of a generation of Muslims who saw the military actions as an "attack on Islam". >>> Haroon Siddique | Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Intoxicated by Power, Blair Tricked Us into War
TIMES ONLINE: The members of the Chilcot Inquiry have a choice: they can be loyal to the Establishment or they can expose the subterfuge

The degree of deceit involved in our decision to go to war on Iraq becomes steadily clearer. This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions and playing footsie on Sunday morning television does nothing to repair the damage. It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Tony Blair engaged in an alarming subterfuge with his partner George Bush and went on to mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn’t want, and on a basis that it’s increasingly hard to believe even he found truly credible. Who is any longer naive enough to accept that the then Prime Minister’s mind remained innocently open after his visit to Crawford, Texas?

Hindsight is a great temptress. But we needn’t trouble her on the way to a confident conclusion that Mr Blair’s fundamental flaw was his sycophancy towards power. Perhaps this seems odd in a man who drank so much of that mind-altering brew at home. But Washington turned his head and he couldn’t resist the stage or the glamour that it gave him. In this sense he was weak and, as we can see, he remains so. Since those sorry days we have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that “hand on heart, I only did what I thought was right”. But this is a narcissist’s defence and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death. “Yo, Blair”, perhaps, was his truest measure.

How effectively the Chilcot Inquiry, to which Mr Blair will give evidence in the new year, can expose any of this remains to be seen. Ominously for the former Prime Minister, his growing distance from power appears to be loosening some well-placed Whitehall tongues. It seems that the contempt felt by some mandarins for his fancier footwork around the weapons of mass destruction is finally showing in a belated settling of scores. Discretion is fading like toothache and the feast of revenge is as tempting as it is cold. Yet the position of the inquiry panel is uncertain. … >>> Ken Macdonald | Monday, December 14, 2009

Blair Listens as Archbishop Condemns Iraq War Decisions
THE INDEPENDENT: The Archbishop of Canterbury today criticised "policy makers" for failing to consider the cost of the Iraq war at a memorial service for the 179 British personnel who died in the conflict.

Dr Rowan Williams, who has previously described the decisions which led to the war as "flawed", praised the "patient and consistent" efforts of troops on the ground.

But he used his address at the national service of remembrance in St Paul's Cathedral to remind his audience that the conflict remained highly controversial.

Among those in the congregation listening to his words was former prime minister Tony Blair, who led the country into war.

Dr Williams said: "Many people of my generation and younger grew up doubting whether we should ever see another straightforward international conflict, fought by a standing army with conventional weapons.

"We had begun to forget the realities of cost. And when such conflict appeared on the horizon, there were those among both policy makers and commentators who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price, the cost of justice."

The Archbishop alluded to the controversial nature of the campaign, known as Operation Telic, which brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in protest in the run up to the war.

He said: "The conflict in Iraq will, for a long time yet, exercise the historians, the moralists, the international experts.

"In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be."

Iraq veterans and bereaved families joined the Queen, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and senior military leaders for the poignant service. >>> Tony Jones and Sam Marsden, Press Association | Friday, October 09, 2009

You Have Blood on Your Hands, Blair Told
THE INDEPENDENT: The former Prime Minister Tony Blair was told today he had "blood on his hands" by a bereaved father at a reception following a memorial service for those killed in Iraq.

Peter Brierley, whose son Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, 28, was killed in March 2003, refused to shake Mr Blair's proffered hand and said: "I'm not shaking your hand, you've got blood on it."

The former prime minister was ushered away and afterwards Mr Brierley, from Batley, West Yorkshire, said: "I understand soldiers go to war and die but they have to go to war for a good reason and be properly equipped to fight."

He added: "I believe Tony Blair is a war criminal. I can't bear to be in the same room as him. I can't believe he's been allowed to come to this reception.

"I believe he's got the blood of my son and all of the other men and women who died out there on his hands.

"It comes back to me every day, every time I see a coffin come off a plane; it reminds me of what happened to Shaun." >>> Laura Harding, Press Association | Friday, October 09, 2009

Iraq War, the Crusades and the Damage to Britain, by David Miliband
David Miliband says the US-led invasion of Iraq has left a feeling of bitterness and resentment towards the West in the Muslim world. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: David Miliband last night offered the most senior Government denouncement so far of the Iraq war.

In a strikingly self-critical speech, the Foreign Secretary admitted the invasion had damaged Britain's standing by leaving a legacy of 'bitterness, distrust and resentment' across the Muslim world.

Although he did not apologise for supporting the invasion of Iraq, he said that for centuries relations between Europe and the Islamic world had been characterised by 'conquest, conflict, and colonialism'.

Speaking to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, he said: 'Decisions taken many years ago in King Charles Street [the Foreign Office] are still felt on the landscape of the Middle East and South Asia.

'Ruined crusader castles remain as poignant monuments to the religious violence of the Middle Ages. Lines drawn on maps by colonial powers were succeeded, amongst other things, by the failure -it has to be said not just ours - to establish two states in Palestine.

'More recently, the invasion of Iraq, and its aftermath, aroused a sense of bitterness, distrust and resentment. When people hear about Britain, too often they think of these things.'

Mr Miliband stressed the importance of the UK seeking out common ground with Islamic countries, and called for 'more political activism and more diplomatic engagement' to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. >>> By Ian Drury | Friday, May 22, 2009

U.S Defence Secretary Used Quotes from Bible to Brief Bush on 'Mission from God' War
MAIL Online: Former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used 'biblical images' to deliver reports on the war in Iraq to President Bush.

With the former president known for his devout evangelical beliefs, bible passages were printed on the top secret briefs detailing the progress of the war in 2003, it has emerged.

The hand-delivered messages, which were leaked to GQ magazine by a source at the Pentagon, were said to portray the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein as being more like a ' crusade' than a modern day war.

One example had a U.S. Abrams tank in the desert and below it the biblical quote from Ephesians: 'Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.'

Another brief showed an image of Saddam under a quote from the First Epistle of Peter: 'It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.'

The biblical remarks take on a greater significance as it is now known President Bush considered he was on a mission from God when he ordered the 2003 invasion. >>> By Mail Foreign Service | Sunday, May 17, 2009

’Yurp’ Says auf Wiedersehen to Dubya: ‘Bush Damaged America’s Image Around the World’
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: German politicians from both the ruling coalition and the opposition are taking aim at outgoing US President George W. Bush ahead of his week-long farewell trip to Europe. The Iraq war, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have damaged America's reputation, they say.

Visits by US presidents to Germany are usually surrounded by an air of history. But the program for George W. Bush's visit on Tuesday and Wednesday reads as if he's already left office. There won't be any grand speeches or symbolic gestures at historic sites.

Instead he's being put up in an official residence in Brandenburg, about 70 kilometers north of the German capital. It's a clear sign that Bush is the lame duck of US politics in the remaining months of his deeply controversial eight-year presidency.

By inviting Bush to Schloss Meseberg palace, the official guest house of the German government, Merkel is officially returning the US president's invitation to his ranch in Crawford, Texas (more...) last November. It's a friendly gesture, but not an especially personal one. "She succeeds in playing this game between closeness and distance," Alexander Skiba, expert for trans-Atlantic relations at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), told the news agency AFP.

But senior politicians from Merkel's ruling grand coalition as well as from opposition parties have done away with diplomatic niceties, seizing on Bush's farewell visit to express their aversion to the president who remains vilified in Germany for launching the Iraq war. ’Yurp’ Says auf Wiedersehen to Dubya: ‘Bush Damaged America’s Image Around the World’ >>> June 9, 2008

BBC:
Bush, the Destroyer of the US Economy, Eyes the Economy on Trip to Europe: He talks about the need for a strong dollar; yet he has done everything in his power to weaken it. Funny that! >>> | June 9, 2008

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
The Faltering George Bush spoke of the work to be done in Afghanistan, ahead of his trip to Europe >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US)

'It Will Forever Be the Right Decision'
Watch Guardian video: Almost five years after the invasion of Iraq, the US president, George Bush, defends his decision to go to war in a speech to religious broadcasters in Tennessee

THE GUARDIAN:
US Middle East Commander Quits By Dan Glaister in Los Angeles and Julian Borger in Tehran

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Pope Calls for an End to the War in Iraq
REUTERS: VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, elevating 23 prelates from around the world to the rank of cardinal, made a pressing appeal on Saturday for an end to the war in Iraq and decried the plight of the country's Christian minority.

One of the new cardinals is Emmanuel III Delly, the Baghdad-based Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, and the Pope used the solemn occasion, known as a consistory, to express his concern for the country.

The other new cardinals come from Italy, Ireland, Germany, the United States, Spain, India, Argentina, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, Senegal, Brazil and France.

Speaking of Delly during the ceremony in St Peter's Basilica, Benedict said Christians in Iraq were "feeling with their own flesh the dramatic consequences of an enduring conflict ... "

The Chaldeans are Iraq's biggest Christian group and the Chaldean rite is one of the most ancient of the Catholic Church. Pope makes new cardinals, calls for end to Iraq war (more) By Philip Pullella

Mark Alexander

Iraq War "Badly Planned," Says British Army
THE TELEGRAPH: A leaked internal Army report has delivered an unprecedented attack on the planning and execution of the war in Iraq.

The document, which openly condemns British and US foreign policy, says that "leaders should not start an operation without thinking through the options and implications of their plans". Iraq war was badly planned, says Army (more) By Sean Rayment

Mark Alexander

Harsh, Uncomfortable Words for the White House from the Ol’ High Priest of Finance
TIMESONLINE: AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.

However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

Greenspan, 81, is understood to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the security of oil supplies in the Middle East.

Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism. [Source: Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil (more) » By Graham Paterson]

Fed veteran Alan Greenspan lambasts George W Bush on economy By Graham Paterson

Power, not oil, Mr Greenspan

Mark Alexander

Democracy Cannot Be Brought to an Islamic Country. It is a Contradiction in Terms
The war is lost. Americans should begin to deal with what that means.

LA TIMES: LOSING HURTS MORE than winning feels good. This simple maxim applies with equal power to virtually all areas of human interaction: sports, finance, love. And war.

Defeat in war damages societies quite out of proportion to what a rational calculation of cost would predict. The United States absorbed the loss in Vietnam quite easily on paper, for example, but the societal effects of defeat linger to this day. The Afghanistan debacle was an underrated contributor to Soviet malaise in the 1980s and a factor in perestroika, glasnost and eventually the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Defeats can have unintended, seemingly inexplicable consequences.

And as any sports fan can tell you, the only thing that feels worse than a loss is an upset. An upset demands explanation and requires that responsible parties be punished.

The endgame in Iraq is now clear, in outline if not detail, and it appears that the heavily favored United States will be upset. Once support for a war is lost, it is gone for good; there is no example of a modern democracy having changed its mind once it turned against a war. So we ought to start coming to grips with the meaning of losing in Iraq. Post-traumatic Iraq syndrome (more) By Christopher J Fettweis*

*CHRISTOPHER J. FETTWEIS is assistant professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.

Mark Alexander