| Subject |
Tobias
Ellwood MP backs call for an inquiry into the Iraq war and
its aftermath
|
| Ref |
PR/06-163 |
| Date |
31st
October 2006 |
In the first
full Commons debate on Iraq since July 2004 Tobias Ellwood will
today be supporting the call for an inquiry to review the way in
which the responsibilities of Government were discharged in relation
to the war in Iraq and its aftermath.
Despite conclusions
from the Hutton Inquiry (prompted by the death of Government adviser
David Kelly) and the Butler Inquiry into the pre-war intelligence,
questions remain about why post-war planning was so poor.
Commenting
on the debate Tobias said:
"I believe an inquiry should take place when the British presence
in Iraq is likely to have been reduced, sometime in the next session.
Iraq is now on the brink of civil war and we, as part of the occupying
force, must learn the lessons of what went wrong. I have never been
a supporter of the war with Iraq and it was a mistake to embark
on this mission without UN approval and hard evidence to prove Saddam
Hussein was a threat. President Bush and Tony Blair deliberately
linked Iraq to terrorism and Al Qaeda to justify an invasion. Sending
230,000 Troops to Iraq has proved a distraction from the real threat
in Afghanistan. Over 1,000 Iraqis are killed every month and two
additional morgues, capable of processing 250 corpses a day, have
been built. This is not the Iraq coalition forces had hoped for
and Parliament deserves the opportunity to ask what went wrong."
Tobias has long
argued that the democratic model imposed on Iraq is part of the
problem and that the country should be split into three. The Sunnis
(Iraq's former ruling class) and the Kurds in the north do not relish
the idea of being ruled for the first time by the Shi'ites, who
are in a majority and mostly based in the south. Britain failed
to recognise this in 1918 and the Kurds have felt betrayed ever
since.
Recognising these groups makes the concept of a federation of states
a real possibility. Some aspects such as defence and oil production
could be run on a national level but giving a degree of autonomy
to the three regions would ease tensions and allow progress in one
area, unhindered by possible difficulties in another. If we do not
accept that differences exist between the Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites,
civil war will lead to the country fragmenting anyway.
|
