Clutching at straws

The partisan Iraq Survey Group (ISG), set up by the occupiers and despite stretching every sinew to come with the news its masters wanted to hear, has concluded that Iraq did not possess WMD. The report has, however, thrown crumbs at the pro-war camp (no doubt with the aim of blunting its central conclusion), for example by saying that there was an intention to acquire WMD. This sounds not a little disingenuous. It has enabled Mr Straw to argue that the threat was even greater than previously thought. It is beyond belief that the Foreign Secretary should draw such a conclusion from a report that demolishes the government's case for the war.

The government's main argument for going to war was that Iraq's possession of WMD posed a present and existing threat to peace. The highly embellished evidence was presented in a manner calculated to give the impression of imminence. It is now clear that was not the case. Mr Blair's passionate pleadings about the dangers of WMD and about future generations blaming our inaction now look dishonest. He has lost credibility.

It is true that Saddam was an unpleasant despot. But that was also the case when Rumsfeld was shaking hands with him. The war was fought on the premise that he possessed WMD. Saddam denied possessing them and it seems he was telling the truth.