John Major leads calls for inquiry into conflict

John Major has maintained a discreet silence since Blair defeated him, but now that silence has been broken.

The story that broke yesterday - implying that Blair lied when he stated that he thought Iraq had WMD - has led Major to call for a public enquiry into the events that led to the Iraq war. Blair has always resisted any such calls, claiming that the Butler Enquiry and the Hutton Enquiry have already exonerated his government. However, most of us recognise that both those enquiries were extremely limited in their remits and were specifically not allowed to explore the reasoning behind Blair's decision to wage war.

The former Conservative prime minister said the inquiry was needed into the "new information" reported yesterday in The Independent from the secret report to the Butler inquiry by Carne Ross, a key negotiator for Britain at the UN.

"The more we learn about the beginning of the war, the more uncertain its rationale seems to be," Sir John said. He said there was "no doubt" that the new Democrat-dominated US Congress would hold an inquiry into the war.

"I do think it is important in due course we do precisely the same," he added. "I would like an independent inquiry that would examine all the information dispassionately."

Blair has already rejected Major's call. However, many in his own party support Major's call.

Alan Simpson, a leading member of the left-wing Campaign Group, said: "This is the most serious revelation about duplicity behind the war. This has to be a matter for an independent, and perhaps judicial, inquiry because this is not just the stuff of fibs; it is the basis for a referral to the international war crimes tribunal. If Blair won't hold one, I hope Gordon Brown will."

Simpson is right. If we are serious about international law, then we have to recognise it when it applies to us and not use it as something that is only relevant to East Europeans and persons in the Middle East. International law has recognised a crime against the peace as the "supreme crime".

Both Bush and Blair manufactured their reasons for invading Iraq. Both of them went to war without sanction from the UN. As yesterday's report bore out, Britain used the fact that 1441 did not contain "automaticity" as a way of persuading the UN Council to vote for that resolution and then later claimed that 1441 did contain the necessary legal requirements to permit war.

This act of duplicity was further underlined by the extreme lengths we went to in order to obtain a second resolution. A second resolution that we claimed we did not need, only after it became abundantly clear that we were not going to get it.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said Mr Blair's justification for war had been "systematically destroyed". He said Mr Ross's evidence was "entirely consistent" with leaked documents.

"If this is true, the British people were knowingly deceived," Sir Menzies said. "The Prime Minister should be ashamed of himself."

Blair should be more than ashamed of himself. He should be prosecuted.

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tag: Iraq war, Blair, John Major, WMD, Carne Ross