Former leaders John Howard, George W. Bush and Tony Blair should hang their heads in shame for what they have done to Iraq.
Their decision to invade that country in 2003, for entirely fraudulent reasons, did untold damage and set Iraq on a downward spiral, the end game of which could be playing out now.
The declaration of victory in Iraq and withdrawal of Australian, US and British troops has a striking resemblance to what happened in Vietnam. In Vietnam, as is the case now in Iraq, the US, Australia and others intervened recklessly and entirely out of self-interest, trashed the place and withdrew when they’d had enough. Problem is that in both cases they created the conditions for eventual defeat for the weak governments they left behind.
As deeply regrettable as the anarchy and bloodshed in Iraq is right now, it is no place for any more Australian military involvement. We simply can’t right the wrongs of the past with more violence at our hands and the loss of more Australian lives.
What Prime Minister Tony Abbott should be doing instead is to take the crisis in Iraq as a prompt to launch a Royal Commission into Australia’s involvement in that country. Former Prime Minister John Howard and former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, among others, stand accused of war crimes and must be held to account. In my opinion they share the responsibility for the current bloodshed in Iraq. How Downer could be appointed High Commissioner to London is nigh on bizarre in these circumstances.
Remember Australia helped start the war in Iraq by claiming it was a haven for terrorists and had a massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Both claims were blatantly misleading and were quickly debunked after the March 2003 invasion. However as a direct result of the consequences of that invasion, and 11 years of subsequent war, Iraq has in fact become a haven for terrorists and put Australia at increased risk.
I take no joy in Howard and Downer being shown to be so emphatically wrong on Iraq. I just want people held to account, lessons learned and mistakes hopefully never repeated.
**Mr Wilkie resigned from the Office of National Assessments in 2003 over the invasion of Iraq and blew the whistle on the fraudulent reasons for Australia joining in the war. He was the only serving intelligence official to go public before the invasion.**
