Unhappy Campers

The British population, who likely never did warm to the idea of becoming involved in the second invasion of Iraq led by the United States in their famous "coalition of the willing", are now witnessing an enquiry whose purpose it is to reveal the suspected and decried covert actions of its former government under Prime Minister Tony Blair, complicit with former U.S. President George W. Bush.

In their conspiratorial zeal to convince the United Nations that their intention was completely legitimate, to apprehend the intentions of a known brutal psychopathic tyrant committed to attacking the West with his arsenal of nuclear devices, both the U.S. and Britain committed their own atrocities; this time to the truth. Depends exactly on how weapons of mass destruction can be construed; after the fact, bacterial warfare material was thought acceptable.

Each had a hand in attempting to convince the uncommitted that theirs was a just and needed intervention in a rogue, but sovereign country's affairs. A country that had undergone a previous invasion for its own illegal invasion of a neighbouring country whom Western forces rescued. And afterward, under the aegis of the United Nations, led a crippling boycott. Which had more than sufficiently weakened the megalomaniac Saddam Hussein.

Which didn't quite satisfy George W. Bush, who always felt that his father who preceded him as president of the United States, and who led the original invasion of Iraq, had left the mission uncompleted. Now the Chilcot enquiry, examining transcripts of classified documents where British Army commanders vented against their country's administration, much is being revealed which had formerly only been suspected.

First to fall were the heartfelt claims of disarmament of weapons of mass destruction at the base of the invasion, not a wish to interfere in the governance of a foreign country, even a brutally dysfunctional one like Iraq whose totalitarian leader had infamously slaughtered his own people who rebelled against him. The documents speak to under-resourced troops. Of an utter lack of preparation.

Lack of foresight, of plans to proceed once the intervention evolved to occupation. The ad hoc British plans with respect to post-invasion, occupation-led reconstruction were absent in details and out of sync with reality. The finger of blame points convincingly at a breach of the Geneva Convention in the absence of contingency planning, and the inability to safeguard civilian lives.

Moreover, the enquiry will study the puzzling events where Tony Blair spoke to Parliament during the steady build-up of resolve to join the U.S. in their invasion aspirations, assuring them that it was not his intention to prepare for military action in Iraq. His opaque statement, "In respect of any military options, we are not at the stage of deciding those options but, of course, it is important - should we get to that point - that we have the fullest possible discussion of those options", must have led to some dropped jaws in retrospect.

And now, the revelations by the British chief of staff in Iraq, that it was his opinion that his American counterparts represented "a group of Martians" for whom "dialogue is alien". Martians as of outer-space visitors from Mars. Mars, the god of war. Martians, as in martial. Deference required to the U.S. plans; no opportunity for discussions as might be required by allies to define their intent and action plan.

Conclusion: total dysfunction. And a still-unfolding tragedy. Oh yes, hundreds of thousands of lost lives. Details, details.