Pre-Chilcot Report Statements

John Chilcot, chairman of a British inquiry into the country's role in the Iraq War, said in releasing the report that Britain joined the invasion of Iraq "before the peaceful options had been exhausted," and that preparations for the aftermath were "wholly inadequate."

UK policy was based on "flawed intelligence and assessments," he said. "They were not challenged and they should have been." Hindsight was not necessary to identify the risks of what would happen to the country post-invasion, he said: "The risks... were each explicitly identified before the invasion."

Furthermore, the legal basis for the war was "far from satisfactory," he said.

"The people of Iraq have suffered greatly," he said.

[...]

Speaking ahead of the release of the long-awaited report in London, Chilcot said former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned of the risks of regional instability and the rise of terrorism before the invasion of Iraq, but pressed on regardless. The UK failed to appreciate the complexity of governing Iraq, and did not devote enough forces to the task of securing the country in the wake of the invasion, he said.

Blair's decision to invade Iraq was influenced by his interest in protecting the UK's relationship with the United States, he said.

That relationship "does not require unconditional support where our interests and judgments differ," said Chilcot. The inquiry did not express a view on whether the invasion was legal, he said, arguing that that was a decision for another forum.

[...]

Tony Blair, Britain's leader at the time, says he will respond fully later Wednesday, but still believes "it was better" to topple Iraq's former dictator.

"I will at the same time say why, nonetheless, I believe that it was better to remove Saddam Hussein and why I do not believe this is the cause of the terrorism we see today, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world," he said.

He said that the Chilcot report "should lay to rest allegations of bad faith, lies or deceit."

  CNN

And here's an ex-British soldier's take:

1. We already know what happened, Chilcot is just an establishment take on events.

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In recent and coming weeks the real issue – why we went, the deadly deception – will be blurred by references to peripheral issues about the conduct of the war. Let's be clear. Bad equipment, for example, is secondary in the big scheme of things. Nor was the war a "mistake" or "accident". Tripping and falling is an accident, getting drunk and trolling your boss at the Christmas party is a mistake. Iraq was neither. It was calculated and intentional.

[...]

2. Blairism is dead

Iraq exposed Blairism as the art of sounding progressive while being vicious. Whatever the inquiry yields, we also know Blair's legacy has an undead zombie quality. It is dead and yet it keeps on killing, as the recent attacks in place like Iraq, Paris and Brussels prove.

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Like 179 British soldiers, Blair's ideology died fighting for Uncle Sam. Like the equipment in Iraq it was not fit for purpose. It can't be reconditioned. The time has come to say goodbye.

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3. The heroes of the Iraq War were the ones who resisted it

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Just a few examples:

Military Families against War (MFAW). Mums, dads, sisters, brothers who, in many cases, lost loved ones and were wracked with grief. Yet they took on and resisted the establishment over Iraq.

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Stop the War Coalition (STWC). Its leaders and its rank and file. A decade and a half of speaking, organizing, manning lonely stalls in little towns and big cities.

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Jeremy Corbyn. An anti-war hero forged in the movement which opposed Iraq's destruction. [...]  His elevation to the leadership of the Labour Party and the anti-democratic coup currently being conducted against him by Blair's acolytes bear testament both to his foresight and to their failings.

[...]

4. We need a referendum on the Special Relationship which dragged us into Iraq

Throughout the EU Referendum there was barely a mention of the UK's Special Relationship with America, yet it has been infinitely more damaging than EU membership.

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[I] you are honestly committed to inclusiveness and multiculturalism you must fight to isolate any nation which puts rapacious savagery against people of colour at the centre of both domestic and foreign policy.

If you want to deal with a really progressive question you must look to the US, forget Brexit and fight for an Amerexit in legal, political, military and economic terms.

  Joe Glenton @ IBTimes

And, the view from the Iraqi man memorialized in the pictures of Saddam's statue being torn down:

Kadhim Sharif al-Jabouri, had once repaired the Hussein family's motorcycles, but was also imprisoned by Hussein after falling out of favor. He says that 14 or 15 members of his family were executed by Hussein's regime.

In an interview aired Tuesday by the BBC, more than 13 years after the invasion, Jabouri speaks of his longing for the relative peace of the years before it.

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Jabouri has long since left Baghdad, which he found to be too unsafe for his family. He now lives in Beirut, along with more than 1 million refugees from Iraq, Syria and Palestine, who have added incredible stress to Lebanon's public infrastructure and services.

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After the American invasion, he says, things got worse every year. "There was corruption, infighting, killing, looting. Saddam killed people, but it was nothing like this current government," he said. "Saddam is gone, but in his place there are 1,000 Saddams."

And that government was instituted by the invading coalition. For them, Jabouri had these words: "Bush and Blair are liars. They destroyed Iraq and took us back to zero, and took us back to the Middle Ages or earlier. If I was a criminal, I would kill them with my bare hands."

  WaPo