Journalist Melanie Phillips is right in her analysis of the impact of the decision not to publish the full correspondence between Tony Blair and George W. Bush before the 2003 invasion of Iraq
On the 2nd June, Melanie Phillips, a journalist loathed by many on the left, argued that “the threat from Saddam Hussein…” [and thus his Weapons of Mass Destruction] “… was real” in an article for The Times.
Though many will throw their hands up in abject horror and disgust, Phillips has a point. Sir John Chilcott could have used this opportunity to set the record straight about it being fact that Saddam gassed thousands of Kurds and also that he somehow managed to hide the arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction that he did, at some point at least, possess. Phillips rightly points out that those that blame Blair for holding up publication miss the point. The real reason that all of this correspondence isn’t being shared is to protect the Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’.
It is about time that the true story of the background to the War on Iraq was revealed. As the historian Andrew Roberts once suggested, strangely, if this were to happen, it could end up becoming documented as a chapter where Blair and Bush ultimately wouldn’t be remembered as the true villains.
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