/ News&Analyses / Diplomacy & Security Middle East
Chilcot inquiry told UK did not consider Iraq regime change before 9/11
British officials decided not to get involved in talk about regime change in Iraq in 2001 even though some parts of the new Bush administration began to discuss the possibility two years before the invasion, the opening hearing of the UK inquiry into the war heard today.
But Whitehall was, like Washington, concerned that the policy of containing Saddam Hussein was failing before the September 11 attacks on the US, senior civil servants said.
Sir Peter Ricketts (…) told the inquiry (…) that it was already clear the three elements of the containment strategy – sanctions, an incentive to lift sanctions if Saddam allowed weapons inspectors to return, and "no fly" zones over north and south Iraq - were "in trouble".
Those conducting a Whitehall review early in 2001 were aware some voices in Washington were already talking about regime change, with Ricketts citing as an example an article written by (…) Condoleezza Rice, warning that "nothing will change" in Iraq until Saddam has gone.(…)
Sir William Patey (…) said that in February 2001 "we were aware of these drumbeats from Washington and internally we discussed it. Our policy was to stay away from that ... We didn't think Saddam was a good thing, and it would be great if he went but we didn't have an explicit policy for trying to get rid of him."
The inquiry heard that the big shift in thinking over American policy transferred from (…) Colin Powell, to the Pentagon after 9/11. But those who supported containing Iraq would have had a stronger argument on their side if the UN had agreed on a revised list of controlled goods for Iraq in 2001.
Ricketts, when asked about British policy if 9/11 had not happened, said: "I'm pretty sure that we would have stuck to the policy that we had. You can see that even after 9/11. We continued to push for a push for a goods review list resolution and to urge the Americans to push that on the Russians. (…) we would have continued to push to get weapons inspectors back in."
UK policy did not change immediately and it was only in late November 2001 that it was clear that Washington was looking at things in a different light. Bush's state of the union address at the beginning of 2002 identified Iraq as one of three countries in the "axis of evil". Earlier, Chilcot said he and colleagues came to the task "with open minds" and were "apolitical and independent of any political party ... We will approach our task in a way that is thorough, rigorous, fair and frank", he said in an opening statement.(…)
He [Chilcot] said no one was "on trial" and the inquiry would not determine guilt or innocence. "But I make a commitment here that, once we get to our final report, we will not shy away from making criticisms where they are warranted” (…)
"We have spent many hours combing through these official records [written material from government departments in Iraq 2001-2009] and will continue to do this in the months ahead. We are confident that we will have access to all the material that we need," he said, adding: " We plan to report by the end of 2010. It is not in our, or the country's, interest to delay the process.(…)
