So the moment everyone was waiting for in the Chilcot Enquiry - Blair's "evidence" - came and went.
Unsurprisingly, no-one is any the wiser, except that it is now on record that "Bliar" has absolutely "no regrets" and no apologies to make over Iraq. In fact the only thing which was very much in evidence, was his arrogance. So, though he may well be recalled to the enquiry, one has to wonder what for? For him to give another melodramatic "I believe I did the right thing" act?
The hand-picked mandarins who are conducting this enquiry even allowed Blair to go back to the ridiculous justification that bombing Iraq was the obvious course after 9/11, to get rid of WMDs - as if Saddam - or WMDs - had anything to do with the attack on the twin towers! But never mind.
When asked, Blair also denied that he had made arrangements with Bush already in 2002 to "get rid of Saddam" using the issue of WMDs as a cover.
But there was one thing over which Blair was truthful - and that was the Anglo-American "special relationship". Blair admitted that he told Bush in April 2002 that "we are going to be with you". In other words, that his primary concern was to maintain the relationship with the USA and ensure that British capital was allocated the position of 2nd fiddle to US companies and banks in the carve up "after" the war.
The mother of all white-washes
Of course, the Chilcot enquiry was never designed to bring the politicians who were responsible for the invasion of Iraq, nor the generals who followed their orders, to account. It has not even the power to reprimand.
Those who are meant to be uncovering the "truth" have no intention of exposing the crude political and economic reasons for this war, (strategic control of the region, the oil, the markets, etc.) Anyway, we all know the general truth of the matter - even though we may not know the details and extent of the government's subterfuge.
No, Chilcot's function is to show that not only can the system investigate itself impartially, but that the war is now well and truly "behind us".
And that is a travesty!
Only this Monday, a woman suicide bomber blew herself and 54 other people up in Baghdad. The truth is, that 7 years after the invasion, "war" - and occupation - goes on. After hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties and catastrophic damage to the country and its peoples, after the deaths of 5,000 Western soldiers, the lethal consequences of this war are still a daily reality.
A criminal system
Yes, British troops may have left Basra and US troops may be reduced over the coming 2 years, but the results of the invasion will be felt for decades.
On top of everything else, the high level of radiation from depleted uranium shells and chemicals like dioxins left by Western ammunition (the WMDs that Britain and the US had, but Saddam Hussein did not!) have caused a sharp increase in the rate of cancer and birth defects around Iraq's main cities. Not only is today's Iraqi population paying an exorbitant price for the invasion, but so will future generations.
No-one can forget that the invasion of Iraq, like Afghanistan, was part of Bush's "war on terror" launched after 9/11 - not to address the causes of terrorism, but to re-assert the all-powerful stranglehold of the rich countries over the world by terrorising a whole region.
Today, Afghanistan is becoming the worst quagmire for Western governments since the Vietnam war. The abject measures - such as bribes to divide the "Taliban" - which were proposed at the special conference in London last week are merely signs of the utter political (and moral) bankruptcy of so-called "world leaders".
Bush may be gone, but his "war on terror" remains as a scarecrow that the politicians of this country can use to cow public opinion into tolerating their crimes. Yes, their war crimes and their infringement of all kinds of freedoms at home. While behind the scenes, the engine that really drives all this madness - the profit motive - is exemplified by Blair himself, with the £1m/year income he draws from an oil firm bidding for the Iraqi oil that his war handed over to the greed of the oil giants!
The Iraq war and the criminal policies of these politicians will never be "behind us" - not as long as the world system of oppression and exploitation driven by private profit remains in place!