After a seven-year wait, the inquiry into former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to join the US-led war on Iraq was published.
Sir John Chilcot concluded in his 2.6m-word report that opting for military action was not a last resort at the time, with the UK taking the decision before exhausting all peaceful options.
While refraining from passing judgement on the legality of the war, he also said Blair deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to gain parliamentary and public support. The threat in reality, Chilcot said, was not imminent at all – and Blair also reportedly ignored warnings that Iraq would be thrown into civil war after the invasion happened.
You can read a more in-depth analysis of Chilcot’s 13 key points on The Guardian and the full report can be viewed here.
Tony Blair has since said that he “accepts full responsibility…without exception, and without excuse,” and as predicted, the media reaction to the report has been largely damning of the then-government’s conduct.
On Thursday, The Sun newspaper’s front page carried the headline: ‘Weapon Of Mass Deception’ while also referencing a secret memo of support that Tony Blair sent to American President at the time, George W Bush, saying ‘I’ll be with you whatever’.
Tomorrow's front page: Tony Blair led a mass deception of the public over the war in Iraq pic.twitter.com/KRN4UGInhS
— The Sun (@TheSun) July 6, 2016
However, people are now accusing The Sun of hypocrisy after they deleted an article from 2003 in their online archive that featured a dartboard of anti-war “traitors”.
BuzzFeed’s Luke Lewis also posted a screenshot of the newspaper’s front page at that time, where they appeared to imply that then-Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy was a ‘spineless reptile that spits venom’. Kennedy opposed the war in Iraq.
Jon Stone, a political correspondent at The Independent then surfaced the aforementioned dartboard article.
https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/750756449404485632
The Sun said readers could use their mock-up dartboard to ‘aim your own missiles at the cowards and traitors who opted to support Saddam Hussein rather than the brave troops who laid down their lives for freedom’.
Among the other accused public figures were George Galloway and UN Secretary-General at the time, Kofi Annan.
The article said that ‘these people wrongly told us that the war would last months, the Iraqi people did not want it and many thousands of civilians and coalition soldiers would die’.
Social media users didn’t hesitate in calling out the newspaper for what one person called ‘hypocrisy that knows no bounds’.
https://twitter.com/RamblingRingo/status/750819326085763076
@Arron_banks Hypocrites The Sun biggest War Cheerleader All opponents to war bullied like Charles Kennedy pic.twitter.com/NYJajK0BXm
— Spartacus (@nevakissedatory) July 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/Wizard_of_loz/status/750809560307335168
https://twitter.com/abrudenell/status/750833667635867648
you forget you supported the illegal invasion? pic.twitter.com/VZDf89pXMM
— Moss (@MossTMC) July 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/TBIGNATIUS/status/750947757301567490
https://twitter.com/DebbiWood3/status/750857255847854081
