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Renewed calls for Iraq inquiry as UK troops withdraw

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, May 1, IRNA – Opposition MPs are joining peace campaigners in stepping up demands for an immediate inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq following the ending of British military operations in Basra.

“Instead of starting in many months' time, it should start right now,” said Conservative leader David Cameron, who has accused the government of “dragging its feet.”

"There are vital lessons to learn and we need to learn them rapidly and the only justification for delay can, I'm afraid, be a political one," said Cameron, whose party originally supported the US-led invasion.

The British government has been reluctant to order an inquiry because of the controversial decision to invade Iraq without a clear UN mandate and the bloody aftermath.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that he did not want an inquiry while British troops were still on the ground in Iraq, but Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davey said the "threadbare excuses" for the delay were "finally gone".

"Ministers now owe it to the troops to talk to opposition parties about the remit for the inquiry," said Davey.

He also warned that the public would see an inquiry as a “whitewash” if it lacked openness and a broad remit.

Campaigners have been seeking an inquiry into the legality of the war and the questionable justification that was based upon exaggerated intelligence about the threat posed by former Iraq president Saddam Hussein.

Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Iraq, said that she was glad that Britain’s military operations were coming to an end and troops were being withdrawn.

“It's been a long time coming. I still don't think my son should have been there. I don't think we should have been there in the first place,” said Gentle, who help to found Military Families Against War campaign group.

The calls come after a final memorial parade was held in Basra on Thursday in which the names of each of the 179 British servicemen and women killed during the conflict were read out before control of southern Iraq was handed over to an American commander.