Blair on Iraq hot seat, seeks to stave off inquiry vote defeat
Iraq-UK, Politics, 10/31/2006

There will be "very real consequences" for British troops in Iraq if MPs defeat the government over calls for an inquiry into the war, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Office claimed today.

"Everyone knows what the headlines would be if the motion were carried... 'Government forced to concede'," Blair's official spokesman said ahead of a parliamentary vote, calling for an independent inquiry into the Iraq was and its disastrous aftermath.

His warning came as the British government was seen risking defeat in the first substantial debate on the Iraq war since MPs narrowly supported deploying troops to joining the US-led invasion over three-and-a-half years.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Welsh Plaid Cymru were leading calls for a committee of seven senior MPs to review "the way in which the responsibilities of government were discharged in relation to Iraq" from the build-up and invasion in March 2003.

But in an amendment to the motion, the government appealed that there had already been four committees of inquiries already into various aspects related to the war and that it "declines at this time invasion" to set up an independent review panel.

At his daily briefing to domestic and foreign journalists, Blair's spokesman warned that an inquiry now would be seen by the enemy as a sign of weakness.

"Of course we continue to learn the lessons all the time and there is no doubt that at the end of our period there people will want to look back," he said.

The spokesman said that the time to deal with it "is then, not now." This, he warned, is "not a theoretical debate. It is a very real debate with very real consequences for our soldiers on the ground." But opening the debate, Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price, who has led moves to impeach Blair over the Iraq war, said the issue was "not about revisiting old ground." "It is an urgent attempt to restore the balance of power between Parliament and the executive; and of the utmost contemporary relevance if we are to prevent such tragedies from happening again," Price said.

SNP leader Alex Salmond said the vote "offers MPs a second chance to re-establish parliamentary accountability over an executive which has led the country into a bloody quagmire." "If this motion carries - or indeed even if it records a substantial shift in opinion since the vote which took us to war - Mr Blair's time in Downing Street will be numbered in days, not weeks or months," Salmond said.

Reports suggested that the government was facing possible defeat due to the number of antiwar Labor MPs who were likely to support calls for a review unless Blair was able to reach a compromise.

The main opposition Conservatives indicated that some kind of face-saving deal may be in the offering in its amendment, calling for the review to start within a year after an expected major withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague has said that if such an inquiry was announced, the Conservatives would abstain from the crucial vote on setting up an immediate review, by that they would put the government "under increased pressure" if not.

"A responsible government should want all possible lessons to be learned from the efforts to bring order and reconstruction to Iraq, and should not be afraid of giving these issues the most searching examination," Hague said on BBC radio.

He distanced the Conservatives continuing support for the war, saying that whatever one's view about the rights and wrongs of the invasion of Iraq, it is "very important to learn about what's happened since then." "Most of us supported the invasion of Iraq and many of us still consider it was the right thing to do... but this is a separate issue," the shadow foreign secretary said.

The Liberal Democrats, who have always opposed the war, also insisted that it was "entirely legitimate" to ask questions of ministers, without undermining troops' morale.

"We want to know that the government actually have a proper plan for Iraq that's got milestones, that's got benchmarks, that actually recognizes we cannot be there indefinitely," the Lib Dems foreign affairs spokesman Michael Moore said.

"The US authorities responded to the failure of the current strategy by initiating the Baker review. The time has come for the British government to do the same," he added.

Previous Stories:
  Britain will 'hold its nerve' in Iraq, Blair insists   (10/23/2006)
  UK wanted to bomb al-Jazeera during Iraq war: daily   (10/12/2006)
  Britons killed in Iraq, Jordan   (9/5/2006)

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