Butler Inquiry Shows the Need for the People to Exercise their Political Will

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Butler Inquiry Shows the Need for the People to Exercise their Political Will

The government announced yesterday that it would establish a Committee of Inquiry to "Review Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction". According to the statement made in Parliament by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, it will have the following terms of reference:

to investigate the intelligence coverage available on WMD programmes of countries of concern and on the global trade in WMD, taking into account what is now known about these programmes.

as part of this work, to investigate the accuracy of intelligence on Iraqi WMD up to March 2003, and to examine any discrepancies between the intelligence gathered, evaluated and used by the Government before the conflict, and between that intelligence and what has been discovered by the Iraq Survey Group since the end of the conflict.

to make recommendations to the Prime Minister for the future on the gathering, evaluation and use of intelligence on WMD, in the light of the difficulties of operating in countries of concern.

The Committee, which will be chaired by the former head of the Civil Service, Lord Butler, will meet in secret and all its other members will be Privy Councillors. Although the government made strenuous attempts to include representatives of all three of the big parties on the Committee, the Liberal Democrats have already refused to serve on it arguing that is terms of reference were too narrow, that it would fail to address the key question – why the government went to war, and would not re-establish "public trust in the office of the Prime Minister".

It is already clear that establishing such a committee of inquiry has been forced on the government by various circumstances: the widespread public disquiet and opposition to the criminal war in Iraq which has increased as a consequence of the publication of the Hutton Report; the actions of the US president, who has himself been forced to establish an enquiry, and the recent resignation and comments by David Kay, the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, who publicly stated that no "weapons of mass destruction" have been found in Iraq, despite an exhaustive nine month search involving over 1,000 inspectors; that it was "highly unlikely" that any would be found, and that intelligence detailing their existence had been wrong.

However it also clear, from the comments of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary yesterday, that although the government has been forced to take account of these circumstances, this has in no way changed its view that the invasion of Iraq was justified. What is more, the Inquiry, as Tony Blair has already made clear, is not being established to hold the government to account. The Prime Minister arrogantly stated that it is up to politicians to make political decisions and they will not render account to anybody. Rather the Inquiry, as well as being yet another diversion, is being used to further co-ordinate intelligence gathering between Britain and the US and to prepare the conditions for further military intervention, on the grounds that there is a need for a continual "war against terrorism".

There is undoubtedly a widespread demand that there should be some independent investigation into the government’s criminal actions in Iraq, and that the government should be held accountable for actions that were taken against the wishes and interests of the people of Britain. But it is clear that the government cannot set up an enquiry to investigate its own wrong-doing, that any such measures the government takes, with or without the cooperation of the other big parties, will bring the same result as the infamous Hutton Inquiry.

The conclusion that must be drawn is that the need for an alternative to the domination of political life by the big parties and the parliamentary system. The people of Britain must find the means and the mechanism so that we can hold the government and state officials to account, so that the people are the decision-makers and can exercise their political will.