The Chilcot report has exposed Blair’s real crime: failure to prepare

‘If it falls apart, everything falls apart in the region’ Note from Tony Blair to George W Bush, 2 June 2003.

The extraordinary length of time that we have had to wait for Sir John Chilcot’s report into the 2003 invasion of Iraq has not made the end result any more satisfying. For some, nothing less than the indictment of Tony Blair on charges of war crimes would have sufficed. As for Blair himself, and many of those who surrounded him when the decision was made to remove Saddam from power, they will go on believing until their dying day that not only was the war just, but there was nothing much wrong with the way in which it was sold to the public and to Parliament. This magazine supported the Iraq invasion and invited sceptics to explain why the world would be a better place with Saddam allowed to continue in power.