To watch Tony Blair defend his Iraq War record is to observe a broken man. His voice cracks, his face is sullen and worn, his eyes occasionally flash at the press corps in a desperate attempt to rekindle the authority that his theatrical rhetoric commanded back in 2003. Now he pleads with the audience. He stands like a naked man, and it appears as if he is about to burst into uncontrollable sobbing. The day of reckoning has finally come and Blair is on trial. True, this is not in a criminal court – not yet – but it is a trial of his entire political legacy. Indeed, if world power relations were not rigged to protect Western leaders, an international war crimes tribunal would almost certainly indict him.

This is all thanks to the Chilco Report, published on July 6. It examines Britain's role in the run up to the 2003 war in Iraq, and in its aftermath. It is named after Sir John Chilcot, the chairman of the committee that compiled the report. It took more than seven years to complete, but, unlike similar investigations in the past, it is not a whitewash. Indeed, every British institution connected with the decisions and actions at the time comes in for sharp criticism. The documents show how the grounds for war were cooked up; how the truth was manipulated and misrepresented; and how the post war occupation of Iraq lacked the most elementary planning. However, the main censure is reserved for the former Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Before 2003 there were voices inside the intelligence community who contradicted Blair's push to support a U.S.-led war designed to overthrow Saddam Hussein. In contrast to the U.S., the aim of causing a regime change could not be used as a legal basis for war in Britain. So, Blair presented (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for war. And he promised Bush that he was with him for "whatever" without even consulting his cabinet.

In the run up to war Blair scuttled around the world trying to persuade politicians that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a real and present danger to Britain and the world. Iraq's chemical, bacteriological and nuclear weapons programs were supposedly active. Blair argued that such weapons were being produced and that Saddam would supply them to Islamic terrorists. Grainy pictures of a few trucks were adduced as evidence alongside assertions of imminent anthrax attacks.

How wrong he was. After apparently winning the war, the U.S. and Britain occupied Iraq. However, peace was soon shattered by battles with pro-Iranian militia forces . The war wrought carnage on the people of Iraq, where 150,000 people were killed and the nation's infrastructure was destroyed. This, in turn, provoked a huge upsurge in hatred and violence directed against the West. It inspired a small but dangerous minority inside the West to carry out terrorist attacks. The subsequent repression of the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iraq also helped to recruit volunteers for the Islamic State forces that are now causing havoc in Iraq, Syria and the wider world.

In these circumstances, it was probably not an accident that Tony Blair's allies have tried to force Jeremy Corbyn to resign as Labour Party leader over the last two weeks. After the Chilcot Report was published, the mother of a British soldier killed in Iraq called Tony Blair the world's "biggest terrorist." To the horror of Labour MPs who supported the war, Corbyn apologized to the people of Iraq and Britain on behalf of the Labour Party. Had Corbyn resigned last week – as most of his MPs demanded – a pro-war MP would have adopted a completely different stance and tried to minimize their collective responsibility.

A handful of Labour MPs helped lead the movement against the war and Jeremy Corbyn was the chair of the Stop the War Coalition. He explained that the war was being launched under false pretexts: It would destabilize the Middle East and would play into the hands of Islamic terrorist groups. Now Corbyn has been 100 percent vindicated. This means that the Blairite Labour Party is finished and a new socialist Labour Party is growing out of its ashes. The present desperate attempt to unseat Corbyn as Labour Party leader is perhaps the final blast from the Blair faction in the Labour Party. They are prepared to drag the party down with their fallen hero.

Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion article reflected the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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