PHOTO: Labor politician Aneurin Bevan, November 1956: “This policy of the British government is a policy of bankruptcy and despair”


Four days later, the United Kingdom is already moving past the Chilcot Report, the seven-year inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War of 2003.

Sir John Chilcot’s assertion that this was “a particular set of circumstances which are unlikely to be repeated” — as well as the task of going beyond that summary to read the 2.6 million words of the report — and the refusal to be blunt about the scale of the Blair Government’s deception is encouraging everyone to draw the curtains on the past and look to the future.

See Britain & Iraq Analysis: Chilcot’s Unsaid Conclusion — Blair Lied for An Invasion

Meanwhile, the media has jumped to the leadership contests of the Conservative and Labour parties, the looming recession of Brexit, and the welcome distraction of a win by Andy Murray on the tennis courts of Wimbledon.

The UK is moving on — but it shouldn’t. We are only through the first of the 11 volumes of the Chilcot Report, but we already have a story beyond even the most critical summaries of the Government’s behavior. Prime Minister Tony Blair had decided in December 2001 — eight months before his “I will be with you, whatever” message to US President George W. Bush — to pursue the pretext for a military invasion.

We will have that story and much more in forthcoming weeks. Meanwhile, here is a message from 1956 that rang just as true last week.

In November 1956, the UK Government colluded with France and Israel to invade Egypt. Prime Minister Anthony Eden pursued the operation with the lie that Britain and France were sending a “peacekeeping force” to halt an Israeli advance towards the Suez Canal. The real goal was to ensure the fall of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

During the Anglo-French bombing of Egypt and just before short-lived ground operations, Labor politician Aneurin Bevin gave a rousing speech in London’s Trafalgar Square that called out Eden’s deception.

We have updated only a few words to fit that speech to Tony Blair and the Iraq War of 2003.


It’s a sad, it’s a very sad, sad story that is unfolding itself before our eyes at the present time. A very, very sad one indeed. I myself feel despondent, really despondent about the mess into which we have been got.

When some young [politicians] say, ah, we giving the lead, the lead to where? Yes, the lead back to chaos, to anarchy, and back to universal destruction. That’s not the lead we want.

This policy of the British government is a policy of bankruptcy and despair. It’s not a policy of civilization. They’re hoping, they’re hoping that the military situation in [Iraq] will soon resolve itself and we shall be militarily successful.

If we are successful, what will that prove? It will only prove that we are stronger than [Saddam Hussein]. It won’t prove that we are right. It’s only the logic of the bully.

Many [British] newspapers today are saying, ah, well, perhaps, we are judging too soon. It may be that [Blair] will get it all over with and then we can breathe a sigh of relief.

That’s what the Germans said about Hitler. They said, ah, well, he may be a liar but will he be a successful liar? They said, he is a bully, but will he be a successful bully? They were perfectly prepared to accept his morality so long as he gave them the prizes.

But we must look further into this. We are stronger than [Iraq], but there are other countries stronger than us. Are we prepared to accept for ourselves the logic we are applying to [Iraq]? If [terrorists] more powerful than ourselves accept the absence of principle, the anarchistic attitude of [Blair] and launch bombs on London, what answer have we got, what complaint have we got? What will [Blair] say to that?

If we are going to appeal to force, if force is to be the arbiter to which we appeal, it would at least make common sense to try to make sure beforehand that we have got it, even if you accept that abysmal logic, that decadent point of view.

And if you going to appeal to a court, whose answer you are going only to if it’s in your favor, you might take care to pack the jury beforehand. And of course we can’t do that.

We are in fact in the position today of having appealed to force in the case of a small nation where, if it is appealed to against us, it will result in the destruction of Great Britain, not only as a nation, but as an island containing living men and women. Therefore I say to [Blair], I say to the British Government, there is no count at all upon which they can be defended.

They have besmirched the name of Britain. They have made us ashamed of the things of which formerly we were proud. They have offended against every principle of decency and there is only way in which they can even begin to restore their tarnished reputation and that is to get out! Get out! Get out!

[Crowd chants, “Eden Must Go!”]