George Galloway: "Not only should Iraq not have been invaded, but there should have been no sanctions"

George Galloway MP

MP for the Respect party for Bethnal Green and Bow
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1723/1/

It was pitiful the way he was allowed to dominate the room, to avoid questions being asked, and to mislead the public when challenged. The ghosts of the people killed in Iraq were not represented in the room either. He was allowed to report that Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions in general and 1441 in particular. But in fact, they weren't in breach of it. There were no weapons of mass destruction.

Not only should Iraq not have been invaded, but there should have been no sanctions. This was entirely absent from the discourse today.

He was allowed to go on and on about "Saddam's last chance to comply", but Iraq was not in breach and had not been since 1994. Blair was allowed to tell a blatant lie and the panel ignored it.

One of the reasons for the material breach, he said, was that Iraq had broken the terms of the resolution that called on them to allow weapons inspectors to interrogate army officials outside the country. In fact, the resolution authorised the arms inspectors to request army officials outside thecountry, but no such request was made.

So Iraq could not have refused and it could not have been in breach of 1441. Either the panel didn't know it or, if they did know, they didn't have the courage to confront him on it – and that's a whopper.

We have no closure. The campaign to hold these people to account continues and will, no doubt, continue into the general election.