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UK’s Iraq War report could make grim reading for Tony Blair

In this Dec. 22, 2005, file photo, then Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair meets soldiers at Shaibah logistics base, Basra, Iraq. (Kirsty Wigglesworth / Associated Press)
By Jill Lawless Associated Press

LONDON – Thirteen years after British troops marched into Iraq and seven years after they left a country that’s still mired in violence, a mammoth official report is about to address the lingering question: What went wrong?

On Wednesday, retired civil servant John Chilcot will publish his long-delayed, 2.6 million-word report on the divisive war and its chaotic aftermath. The U.S.-led conflict killed 179 British troops and some 4,500 American personnel. It also helped trigger violence that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and still rocks the Middle East.

And it overshadows the legacy of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“Despite all the many other things he did – and many people would argue lots of positive achievements – he will always be remembered for this fateful decision in 2003,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute.

Opponents of the war hope Chilcot will find that Blair agreed to support President George W. Bush’s invasion and then used deception to persuade Parliament and the public to back it.

Such a stark finding is unlikely. But senior politicians, diplomats, intelligence officials and military officers are bracing for criticism over the flawed arguments that led to the invasion and the lack of planning for the occupation that followed.

“I think it will probably shy away from saying, ‘This is what happened and this is who is to blame and this is what we should then do to them,’ ” said Gareth Stansfield, professor of Middle East politics at the University of Exeter.

“I think it will address key lessons in how intelligence was generated and then used and manipulated in the political system.”

Chilcot’s inquiry held public hearings between 2009 and 2011, taking evidence from more than 150 witnesses – including Blair, who has served as an international business consultant and Mideast peace envoy since he stepped down in 2007.

The inquiry has analyzed 150,000 documents and cost more than $13 million.