The Iraq Inquiry Panel.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the Iraq War Inquiry panel today that the reputation and authority of the United Nations would have been “severely dented” if the US and UK had not acted on their threats of military action against Saddam Hussein.
Miliband was a junior education minister at the time of the war; at today’s 90-minute hearing, he was asked why he decided to back the decision to go to war, given the “three rather different explanations” offered to the panel by other government leaders at the time. Sir Roderic Lyne, one of the panel members, said, The Guardian noted, that the panel had heard three notably different explanations for Britain entering the war: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed the need for regime change in Iraq; former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw highlighted the perception that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction at the time; and Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the panel that he supported the invasion because he felt that credibility of the international community demanded it.
Miliband told the panel that he didn’t find these three explanations at all divergent: At the time, credible intelligence pointed to Saddam Hussein possessing the “material” to pose a global threat and that the authority of the UN would have been undermined if America and Britain had not followed up with military action.
Miliband’s appearance follows Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2001 to 2007 and whose testimony on Friday touched on his involvement in the decision to follow a military course in Iraq and subsequent funding for troops serving in Iraq. Watch Brown here.
Add new comment
The Periscope Post reserves the right to delete inappropriate or abusive comments; profanity will not be tolerated. Remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right.