The Iraq War

How far did the Iraq war achieve Blair’s aims?

* Military/Iraq
* Domestic

Military/Iraq

US-UK joint invasion

2003, a US-UK join invasion began, with no formal declaration of war. It was accompanied by bombing raids against key targets

Invasion of Tikrit

The invasion was complete with the fall of Tikrit, the home town of Hussein. The invasion had seen 9,200 Iraqi soldiers killed, around 3,200 citizens killed and 33 UK soldiers killed

Abuse of Iraqi prisoners

Photos of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops caused global condemnation - it helped to undermine the US-UK forces’ claim to having the moral high ground and spurred many to join the insurgency

Transitional government in Iraq 2005

Iraqis voted to elect a transitional government who would develop a new constitution. Although some violence did breakout and the Sunni minority boycotted, the election saw a reduction in violence from 70-30 attacks a day

Murder of a 15 year old Iraqi girl

The rape and murder of a 15 year old Iraqi girl by 4 US soldiers is reported widely and helps further damage the credibility of the invading forces both in and outside Iraq

Camp Bucca

Camp Bucca held prisoners of both Hussein’s regime and Islamist extremists.

Conditions of Camp Bucca

By 2007, the Camp was increasingly overcrowded and had inhumane conditions. The camp became the centre of a number of attacks to free dangerous prisoners

Leader of Al Qaeda killed

The leader of Al Qaeda is killed by a US attack, as elections are held for the new Iraqi Parliament. A new government is formed

2006: Execution of Hussein

The trial of Hussein started in 2004 and ended in 2006, sentenced to death by hanging. He declared that he was happy to die as a martyr and was executed

Domestic

Beliefs of population in the UK regarding Iraq War

Polls in the UK found that 70% believed that British involvement had made no difference or had made the situation worse, and 63% believed Blair’s relationship with the USA was too close

Andrew Gillingan

Gillingan broadcasted a story where he claimed that the government had ‘sexed up’ the intelligence used to persuade the Parliament to go to war

Source of Gillingan’s story

Dr David Kelly was found to be the source, but had committed suicide. Kelly had been subject to huge media scrutiny in the days before his death and his name had been confirmed as the source of the leak

Limitations of Gillingan’s story

The Hutton inquiry found that Gillingan’s investigation was heavily flawed and that the decision to run the story was wrong

The Butler Review

Pointed out that the Butler Review involved allies of New Labour and suspected a cover up. Eg - the torture of an Iraqi man was not criticised

Conditions of children

Rates of child malnutrition had risen 28% since 2003, while 2/3 of all children were suffering psychological problems. A cholera epidemic broke out, and chemical weapons by US forces had seen a rapid increase in babies born with defects

Hostage of British civilians

A number of British civilians hostages were taken by Islamist extremists - many of these were contractors employed to infrastructure projects. Some were executed as a result - further proof of the lawlessness and lack of control UK and US forces had

Increase in recruitment capability

The Iraq War was blamed for increasing the recruiting capability of Al Qaeda - 300 citizens were killed in multiple attacks on trains in Madrid, whole terrorism had spread with groups in Nigeria who carried our a series of Al Qaeda inspired attacks

The aftermath of the conflict

* 170/220,000 British service personnel were killed
* 4424 US soldiers died

Cost of the War in Britain

 £20.3 billion

Assessing Blair’s legacy

Domestic impact of Blair’s legacy

His economic record had been destroyed by the Financial Crisis and years of austerity that followed (for which the Conservatives blamed on Labour spending)

Global impact of Blair’s legacy

The War on Terror had ruined his reputation with many believing it was his policies that had helped to fuel the growth of Islamic Fundamentalism and making the UK a target for extremists

Labour’s view and impact of Blair’s legacy

Rejected his ‘third way’ doctrine - the ultimate rejection of Blairism came in 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn was elected as its leader

Civil liberties’s view on Blair’s legacy

Stated that his only legacy was bringing in a series of tough anti-terrorism laws which placed growing restriction on individual rights while giving a great amount of power to the state