London // The head of Britain's Iraq War inquiry released a damning report on Wednesday on a conflict he says was mounted on flawed intelligence and executed with "wholly inadequate" planning.
Retired civil servant John Chilcot, who oversaw the seven-year inquiry, said the decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 had a "far from satisfactory" legal basis.
"The UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort," he said.
Mr Chilcot said then-prime minister Tony Blair's government presented an assessment of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons with "certainty that was not justified." Military planning for the war and its aftermath were not up to the task, Mr Chilcot said.
He said "the people of Iraq have suffered greatly" because of a military intervention "which went badly wrong."
Mr Chilcot heard from 150 witnesses and analysed 150,000 documents. His conclusions are a blow to Mr Blair, who told President George W Bush eight months before the March 2003 invasion - without consulting government colleagues - "I will be with you whatever."
The report says that Mr Blair went to war to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Britain's main ally, only to find the UK excluded from most important decision-making about the military campaign and its aftermath.
*Associated Press
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