The inquiry into Iraq was initially announced on July 15, 2009 by Gordon Brown, and hearings were finally concluded on February 2, 2011. It has still not published its findings.
The Iraq inquiry is not just about Tony Blair. It is about 100,000 dead Iraqis, the 179 dead British service personnel, the mutilation of a nation and the destabilisation of an entire region. And whatever Chilcot reports, neither Tony Blair’s supporters or enemies will be happy.
The real reason Chilcot must publish his report on Iraq is because the time has come to draw an official line under Iraq. Iraq is not just a stain on our history – it is a stain on our present.
The war of 2003 is no distant abstraction. As the Syria vote proved, it is the prism through which every British foreign policy decision is still viewed. It will continue to distort our vision until we finally deliver some sort of national closure.
There is only one way to have that closure. Which is to bring the truth about what happened in Iraq, and the official version of what happened in Iraq, into alignment.
The British people don’t need to learn again what happened in Iraq. What they need is the sight of an austere-looking man, in a rather dull suit, walking up to a lectern, holding aloft a large, imposing document, and announcing, “What happened in Iraq was wrong. In here it tells you why.”
Dan Hodges full report on this is here:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100270109/the-time-has-come-for-sir-john-chilcot-to-publish-and-be-damned/
