Australia can learn from Chilcot report, says ex-Greens leader

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/australia-insights-chilcot-report-ex-greens-leader

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The former Australian Greens leader Christine Milne has spoken of the importance of the Chilcot report for nations such as Australia that were involved in the Iraq war but whose leaders have not been held to account for their involvement in the conflict.

“It is important because Aust Govts have not held any inquiry and so conclusions are only insights we are likely to get,” she tweeted on Wednesday after the report’s release.

Milne criticised the Australian media for not mentioning John Howard, the prime minister who led Australia into the Iraq war, during coverage of the Chilcot report.

Interesting that Aust media coverage tonight of #ChilcotReport and interviews make NO mention of Howard. #auspol

“Murdoch press will ignore #ChilcotReport, so too Lib/Lab establishment, Howard has never been held to account,” Milne added.

The Chilcot report, published on Wednesday, offered a serious critique of Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in 2003. Among the findings of the 2.6m-word, 12-volume report were that the UK chose to join the US invasion of Iraq before “peaceful options for disarmament” had been exhausted.

Australian involvement in the Iraq war was beyond the scope of the Chilcot inquiry, though Howard was mentioned at least eight times in the report’s supporting documents.

The mentions of Howard include references to his conversations with Blair in the run-up to and throughout the conflict, including one conversation in January 2003 in which Blair and Howard discussed obtaining a second resolution from the UN.

Australia joined the initial coalition of forces invading Iraq in March 2003, deploying three ships and a clearance diving team as well as a 500-strong special forces task group, supported by three Chinook helicopters.

No Australians serving with the Australian military were killed during the conflict, though many were injured and some Australians serving with the British military were killed.

In a speech in March 2003, Howard said the decision had been taken “to disarm Iraq because we believe it is right, it is lawful and it’s in Australia’s national interest. We are determined to join other countries to deprive Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, its chemical and biological weapons, which even in minute quantities are capable of causing death and destruction on a mammoth scale.”

Howard cited the 9/11 attacks as well as the bombing of a nightclub in Bali in 2002, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, as examples of the lack of regard for human life shown by “international terrorists” and a reason why removing weapons from “countries run by despotic regimes” was crucial.

The decision to commit Australian troops to Iraq was controversial. Before the decision had been announced, Simon Crean, then leader of the opposition, made a statement to parliament in which he accused Howard of committing Australia’s young men and women to a war “without the mandate of the Australian people, the Australian parliament or the United Nations” but “solely on the say-so of George W Bush”.

There has not been the same concerted effort in Australia as there has been in the UK to hold leaders to account for what they knew before committing troops to Iraq, but various colleagues have cast doubt on Howard’s claims that he was working off the best evidence at the time.