A much-awaited report detailing the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war was published this week, and the 2.6 million word document concludes this: it was “an intervention that went badly wrong, with consequences to this day.”

The report, collated by The Iraq Inquiry over a period of seven years and headed by Sir John Chilcot, revealed a collection of facts and details which call into question the very purpose of the UK’s involvement in the 8-year war in Iraq. One of the more disturbing revelations is that the civilian death toll due to British actions has never been reported accurately.

In 2003, Tony Blair, then prime minister of Britain, went to war in Iraq alongside the United States based on flawed intelligence that wasn’t contested, according to the New York Times.

Exactly 179 British military personnel died between 2003 to 2009 in the Iraq War, but previous reports have ensured that no one really knows how many Iraqi civilians actually died because of the UK’s involvement.

The Chilcot report found that the methods used previously to tally war casualties were skewed by what they wanted to find — which was a way that the decision to intervene in the war wouldn’t reflect poorly on the UK government.

The report notes that before invading Iraq, the chief of the defense staff in the UK advised Tony Blair that civilian casualties would likely reach the “low hundreds.”

But, perhaps pointing at the utter disregard shown toward innocent lives, it also reveals that in July 2002, Blair wrote a note to then US President George Bush, promising that, “I will be with you, whatever.”

In the initial years of the war, the UK government had claimed that it had no reliable method of counting the dead. But the Chilcot report reveals that the British army did, in fact, make “assessment reports” on encounters and incidents that took place in its operations, including those involving civilians. These reports, however, were not collated.

What’s more, reports by different NGOs have differing results.

A report by Iraq Body Count states that there have been between 156,531 and 175,101 violent civilian deaths since January 2003.  

A study by the Iraqi Government in collaboration with the WHO estimates that there have been at least 150,000 “indirect deaths” during the five years spanning 2003-08.

But a 2013 survey carried out by a group of American, Canadian, and Iraqi researchers states that there have been 461,000 “excess deaths” between 2003 and 2011.

The report has also raised questions about the legality of the war. "The circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for U.K. military action were far from satisfactory," said Sir Chilcot, according to The Big Story.

Bound to raise more questions about the Iraq War, the Chilcot report comes at a time when the UK is already coming to terms with the outcome of the Brexit vote. It also provides insight into the wasteful and callous nature of wars, and sends a message to leaders across the world to value human lives and avoid going to war.

TopicsUKBritainUnited KingdomIraqWar

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