Wot, no WMD?

Letter emailed to The Guardian on Mon 2nd Feb. It was published on Wed 4th, but in such a heavily edited and toothless form that it was rendered both anodyne and incomprehensible in print:

Dear Editor

The 'inquiries' to be set up on both sides of the Atlantic into the non-existence of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq are transparent attempts to punt the issue into the long grass, and to allow Bush and Blair to claim: "'twasn't me, guv, it was them spooks wot gave me duff gen". These 'inquiries' will last months, likely years, during which time any debate on the issue will be fobbed off until the great and the good publish their reports, which will inevitably find "intelligence failures" and a few symbolic heads will roll.

The simple truth is that both regimes knew full well that WMD didn't exist, and that the invasion of Iraq was premeditated armed robbery on a grand scale to save the economic skins of both nations. WMD were never any more than a flimsy pretext, but one which the credulous media and publics either side of the Pond swallowed whole. Whilst it's possible, though very unlikely, that Bush and/or Blair sincerely believed there to be WMD in Iraq, the issue of their personal integrity is an irrelevant distraction: the US and UK regimes carefully planned the sacking of Iraq, killing tens of thousands in the process, and no inquiry will hold them to account because the inquirers will be, as Hutton was, drawn from the ranks of the selfsame regimes.

Yours faithfully


Fred Riley