Brown insists Iraq war was ‘right decision’

LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his role in the 2003 Iraq war Friday, telling a public inquiry it was “the right decision” and rejecting claims he withheld funding from the armed forces.

Brown said while he had not been closely involved in political decisions on the conflict, he was fully informed and had done everything required of him in his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer under former premier Tony Blair.

“Nobody wants to go to war, nobody wants to see innocent people die, nobody wants to see their forces put at risk of their lives,” he said, but added: “I think it was the right decision and made for the right reasons.”

He said Britain hoped “right up to the last minute” to tackle the threat posed by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein through the United Nations, but this failed and it had to act to preserve the international community’s credibility.

Brown’s appearance before the inquiry is a political wild card just weeks ahead of a general election expected on May 6. The war, which led to 179 British soldiers losing their lives, remains hugely divisive here.

Much of the blame has been laid on Blair, who appeared at the inquiry in January, but Brown insisted everything the former premier had done during this period “he did properly.”

However, Brown himself is facing damaging allegations that he failed to properly fund the armed forces.

Witnesses to the inquiry, including the defence minister at the time, Geoff Hoon, have said money was tight and a former chief of the defence staff also alleged lives were lost because Brown ignored pleas for funding.

General Charles Guthrie, who led the armed forces from 1997 to 2001, told Friday’s edition of The Times: “Not fully funding the army in the way they had asked… undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers.”

However, Brown said he had told Blair in June 2002 there would be no financial restraints on war, and said he met all subsequent requests for funds.

“At any point military commanders were able to ask for equipment that they needed and I know of no occasion when they were turned down for it,” he said.

Brown did admit “regrets” for not being more successful in persuading the United States to make planning for reconstruction after the invasion more of a priority.

The prime minister said the war cost about eight billion pounds overall, on top of an increasing defence ministry budget — money that critics say could have been better spent elsewhere.

Outside the hearing, a small group of protesters brandished a blood-soaked cheque for funds they said could have paid for schools and hospitals.

“But what has it done? Killed and destroyed, hurt and maimed,” said Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, a long-time critic of the war.

After the morning session of Brown’s evidence, Susan Smith, whose 21-year-old son Phillip Hewett died when his lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover was blown up in Iraq in July 2005, said she was unimpressed by his account.

“He’s saying there’s this much money here and there was that much money there. But he’s not actually answering anything,” she said.

Brown said he was not at some key meetings Blair held in the year before war, but insisted he was fully briefed on the intelligence that helped build the case against Saddam and on advice about its legality.

“I did not feel at any point that I lacked the information that was necessary, that I was denied any information that was required,” he said.

“But my role in this was not to second-guess military decisions or options, my role was not to intervene in what were very important diplomatic negotiations… (it was) to make sure that the funding was there for what we had to do.”