Sunday 1 August 2010

Iraq intelligence

John Prescott has given his statement to the Chilcott enquiry on the Iraq war - and what a statement! "When I kept reading them (intelligence reports), I kept saying to myself, 'Is this intelligence?' It was not very substantiated but clearly was robust. ..." There's plenty more where that came from. In particular, the bit about Lord Goldsmith being "not a happy bunny" because of the weight put upon his shoulders to come up with a legal justification for war - that was pure gold.

Lord Prescott's use of the word "robust" leaves me wondering if he actually knows what it means. The definition at dictionary.com says "(of an object) Sturdy in construction". I'm not quite sure how something which is "not very substantiated" can be sturdy in construction. I suspect that Lord Prescott was trying to have it both ways. His testimony was nevertheless incredibly revealing, if not outright damning. The big question has to be why he couldn't have said these things at the time, when they might have made a difference. He said that “true leadership is not about having the benefit of hindsight”. Well there were very many at the time without the benefit of hindsight who knew that war with Iraq was wrong.

Change the World.

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