Former Australian PM Acknowledges Mistaken WMD Intelligence Behind Iraq War
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Canberra, Jan 1 (NationPress) Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has acknowledged that the intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) which led to the Iraq War was erroneous.
On Wednesday, Howard expressed his disappointment that searches did not uncover any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, although he maintains that the choice to engage Australia in the conflict was made in the national interest, as reported by Xinhua news agency.
His remarks came in conjunction with the unveiling of previously sealed cabinet documents from 2004 by the National Archive of Australia (NAA).
Every year on January 1, the NAA publicly releases cabinet documents from two decades earlier.
The documents from 2003, released later in March 2024 due to some being misplaced, disclosed that Howard's administration sanctioned the troop deployment to Iraq in January 2003, months before Australia officially committed to the conflict in March of that same year.
A 2004 investigation revealed that Australian intelligence agencies did not accurately assess the scope and nature of Iraq's WMD programs.
Howard, who is the second-longest serving prime minister in Australian history, stated on Wednesday that the decision to participate in the war was predicated on intelligence from the United States and United Kingdom.
Without a UN resolution authorizing the use of force, former US President George Bush initiated the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, claiming that the mission was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, eliminate Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and liberate the Iraqi people. However, these assertions ultimately proved to be either false or unachieved.
