The Chilcot Inquiry - When Will We Finally Get the Truth?

It is time for answers and the longer the publication of this report is delayed, the further we get from every finding out the truth. This has gone on long enough. It's been postponed time and time and time again. And we are just not any further or any closer to the truth than we were in 2003.

My first feeling upon hearing the news that the publication of the Chilcot Inquiry would be delayed until after the General Election was one of deep sadness.

179 British servicemen and women lost their lives in the Iraq conflict. Many more were injured alongside hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were killed or wounded. Almost 12 years on we are still no closer to finding out why we were led into this war.

It is time for answers and the longer the publication of this report is delayed, the further we get from every finding out the truth.

This has gone on long enough. It's been postponed time and time and time again. And we are just not any further or any closer to the truth than we were in 2003.

Could it be because the questions being asked in the Chilcot Inquiry and the answers they uncovered and damaging and hugely controversial?

I think so.

I think there are individuals who throughout the Inquiry had their integrity questioned about why we were led into the Iraq invasion and I think many of these face serious consequences in terms of further trials.

There are questions here that have to be asked across the political spectrum and these have to be answered in public.

We do not know what is the truth. We do not know what's in the report it is being delayed for all sorts of reasons and I'm sure it's because there are severe consequences to bear.

This isn't an issue we can ignore or say doesn't matter to us. Because it does. It matters to those who lost their lives and their families. It matters to those who were injured and those who were detained in Guantanamo like Jamil el-Banna and Martin M'Banga.

We have to know why this was allowed to happen? I think that Tony Blair misled parliament and I think he misled the country into this invasion. But without the publication of this report, we do not know what happened.

I believe it was a completely illegal invasion that it was politically motivated. I believe the British public was completely misled about it and it's time responsibility was taken for leading us into that war.

Did British servicemen and women give their lives on a falsehood for the sake of a political agenda?

Why we were led blind folded into a war?

And in terms of further involvement in Iraq. How can we send our troops back into conflict, when we still do not know the truth about what happened in 2003?

There are questions that have been asked.

I expect those questions to be answered and the long, overdue findings to be public.

We have been waiting for the truth for too long. It's time that we had the truth.

Ibrahim Taguri is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Brent Central

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