'I'll be with you, whatever,' Tony Blair told George W. Bush months before Iraq invasion

LONDON -- Eight months before the Iraq war, the then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote to George W. Bush saying he would be with him "whatever," the chairman of a long-awaited inquiry said. 

In presenting the results of a seven-year inquiry into the Iraq war, Sir John Chilcot said that on July 29, 2002, Blair wrote a confidential memo to Bush saying "I will be with you, whatever."

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The inquiry concluded that the UK "chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament were exhausted." 

The UK planning and preparation for the war were "wholly inadequate" and in March 2003 there was "no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein." 

It also found that policy on Iraq "was made on the basis of flawed intelligence and assessments."

"They were not challenged, and they should have been," Chilcot said. 

"The UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament were exhausted."

The report didn't express a view on whether military action was legal, but circumstances surrounding the decision on the legal basis for Iraq invasion were "far from satisfactory."

The decision to invade was "shaped by key choices made by Mr Blair's Government over the previous 18 months" before March 2003.

Chilcot also contradicted Blair's assumption that hindsight was required to know about the consequences of the Iraq invasion.

"We do not agree that hindsight was required. Ministers were aware of the inadequacy of U.S. plans, and concerned about the inability to exert significant influence on U.S. planning."

"More than 1 million people have been displaced. The people of Iraq have suffered greatly," he said.

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