Public Inquiry into the War in Iraq

Published: 31/03/2009

Public Inquiries into Iraq, Torture
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

I watched a report on Fallujah last week on Sky News by Lisa Holland for which she deserves our gratitude and a top TV award. It featured a quietly spoken female Iraqi doctor, Dr Muntaha Hashim, a neo-natal specialist who is finding that in that town, bombed and collectively punished by the allies, there has been a massive increase in the number of deformed babies. She sees children with two heads- one, a young girl with bountiful hair was curled up on a bed- and others limbless or born without vital organs. The number has doubled since the days of Saddam. Some, unidentified chemical weaponry is responsible. Pro-war politicians, dodgy spooks, spin doctors and unrepentant media warriors like Christopher Hitchins and William Shawcross and others still claim triumphantly the war was a victory of good over evil. Their own offspring will not be born with two heads and, they must believe, Iraqis are paying but a small price for ‘freedom’.

We will never know what was done in Fallujah in our name. We will not be told the full truth on the victimisation of civilians in Basra either, nor the ‘renditions’ global industry which provides us with information obtained under torture from alleged terrorists, certainly not our productive links with some of the most diabolical regimes in the world. In our supposedly free and open democracy we are not even entitled to know the truth about why we went to war in Iraq, a war which made terrorism respectable and convinced millions of Muslims that the west was embarked on a new crusade.

As a good citizen, I make it my business to question MPs and Peers who supported the false case made for the Iraq war. I meet practised insouciance or unwarranted fury, or that most base of excuses:’ I believed what I was told, that it was the only option’. Contrition hardly makes in an appearance. Most want to go forward and not be dragged back to those difficult days. Chris Mullins, whose published diaries are delightful, was against the war but succumbed to Blair’s charm offensive and voted to prevent an inquiry, a stand I find inexplicable and unforgivable.

Iraq is the cut on the body politic that seeps and will not heal, a constant reminder of the wounded country our soldiers are now set to leave. In a recent BBC poll over seventy per cent of Britons want an open and credible inquiry into this disastrous venture. Millions want another on the use of torture allegedly sanctioned by the government and secret service personnel.

The Attorney General has, to her credit, decided the latter needs to be investigated through the Criminal Justice system. On the war we are now given a vague promise of some kind of investigation, probably deep indoors, some years hence. David Milliband said on the record:’ I am obsessed with the next five years in Iraq, not the last five years’. We have institutionalised secrecy and duplicity in the Executive, Judiciary, Intelligence Services, Parliament and the Privy Council ( Remember the word ‘privy’ also means toilet, a closet where nasty stuff is dumped and washed out.) Those in power will see that is, after feigned concern, the burning issues are simply flushed away. You cannot trust our masters not to cover their tracks and now it is impossible to trust the men they choose to lead investigations into improper or illegal conduct. Remember Hutton and Butler.

It is a very British response, so clearly illustrated by the interminable Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday. In 1972 Lord Widgery looked into the gross violation and decided the army did no wrong. Another inquiry was set up ten years ago under Lord Saville. It still has to deliver a judgement. By the time it does- after spending millions of pounds- few will care.

Meanwhile, all the key players who lied grievously and sexed up evidence have got away with it. More sickening still, the once conjoined twins Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell are today are endowed with respect. Our Ex PM struts around the world stage believing himself to be a Mandela figure, a peace prophet. Campbell gets plaudits for his panache, novel, confessional TV, wit, intelligence and cockiness. The New Statesman even handed him a guest edition to oversee, disgracing itself and the left in Britain.

Carne Ross, once FO Iraq expert says we have been duped. Brian Jones, former head of arms intelligence at the MOD believes the dossier presented was manipulated by Downing Street. According to Lord Bingham, Britain broke international law. Nick Clegg wants a full public inquiry, so too the families of soldiers killed in action. And Iraqis want to know who is responsible for the cries of grieving mothers as they deliver malformed foetuses, the dozens of civilians still being blown up, their nation ripped apart by regional and sectarian enmities and foreign exploiters. They will all hope and wait in vain I fear. There is no atonement, only glory for the sinners. Perhaps God really is on their side.

Published in The Independent