The Chilcot Enquiry's aim is not an attempt to place public accountability for the Iraq fiasco, but to deny it entirely.

In the cartoon below 'Adams' points out the 'Chilcot Enquiry' into the Iraq war is one of many attempts by both the Labour government and Conservative opposition to pass the buck; and cover up and whitewash clean those government ministers  and parliamentarian's who took Britain to war against Iraq on a criminal lie. Whilst the overwhelming majority of the British people understand where responsibility for this criminal endeavor lays, by setting up the third public enquiry into the Iraq war in as many years, is not an attempt by the British government and parliamentarians to place public accountability where it belongs, but yet another silly attempt to substitute it entirely. 

Incidentally, this refusal to place the blame for the Iraq war on those responsible for it, is the core reason why the electorate has lost all confidence in the UK's political elite and have come to regard them as a shower of shifty inadequates on the make. The MP's expenses scandal was merely the tipping point.

As Simon Jenkins writes in today’s Guardian

“ What else is Chilcot about? We know the truth. The report can be written in a sentence. Tony Blair went to war in Iraq because he lacked the guts to stand up to George Bush, say the invasion was not justified by facts or law, and refuse to join him in Baghdad. Despite being told to his face by Hans Blix that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he deceived the cabinet and parliament and took his nation to war.”

“ We know this from a dozen books and papers, from leaks and reports, from freedom of information requests and memoirs. Chilcot might dot an i and cross a t. He might reveal a memo or confirm a date. But to what end? We have been told how Blair took the decision by sofa government, twisting, dodging and distorting the constitution to get it through. We know how Downing Street crafted documents to scare the public into believing that the nation's security was under threat. We know that the army was left without equipment or planning. All this we know.”

What we also know is that in 2003 the UK parliament voted for the Iraq war by 412 votes to 149. Both government Ministers and MP’s, and the Tory opposition voted almost en masse for the use of military force in Iraq. Despite all the evidence pointing to there being a viable alternative; and our EU partners refusal to support the US President’s mad and criminal rush to war. 

It is hardly surprising the British electorate have lost all confidence in its mainstream politicians, for when voting in support of the Blue Labour and Tory leaderships decisions to go to war, the overwhelming majority of MP’s were placing their own careers above the good of the country and the lives of the young men and women they were sending to war.

Jenkins continues,

“The war may have been peculiarly Blair's in that he personally oversaw the preamble to it and took upon himself the burden of selling it to the electorate. But parliament and the wider political community cannot be detached from blame and thus exonerated.

With the exception of the then foreign secretary,Robin Cook, and the development secretary Clare Short,  every member of the cabinet signed up to the war and most MPs voted for it. They did so in defiance of what Cook, who knew the state of the intelligence, told them. They did so knowing that the attorney general's advice had smudges all over it and knowing that the weapons of mass destruction dossiers were "dodgy". Blair was no fool. He made sure that the House of Commons debated and voted for Iraq, and it did.”

He goes on.

“Parliament approved the war and its various select committees never once voiced dissent. It did so because Labour MPs were frightened for their jobs and wished to keep in with Blair, and because Tory MPs never oppose wars. Most of the media agreed with them, even after 2 million Britons marched through London opposing the invasion. The political community ultimately bought into Blair's war.” 

Voting to take the country to war, or not, is the most important decision any parliamentarian can make. If that decision then goes pear shaped, a democratic assembly worthy of the name must account for its members behavior. The total refusal of the Westminster Parliament to explain why in March 2003 a majority of its members voted for war on Iraq, despite all the evidence available at the time highlighting there were alternative options available. 

Jenkins concludes.

“If they (Westminster MP’s)now consider themselves mistaken, even if they were misled, MPs cannot push responsibility on to a stage army of judges, civil servants and historians. They must debate the matter and reach the appropriate conclusion. If parliament decides that the cabinet collectively was to blame – as surely it must – then it should demand resignations. If it finds itself to blame, it should dissolve and submit itself to the judgment of the electorate, rather than outrageously telling Chilcot not to report until after next year's election.”