The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
of the
discussion he was going to have with his colleagues. Looking at the
record,
it looks as
if that’s the only thing I was bothered about, and that gives a
slightly
misleading impression.
“I think he
did have those discussions with colleagues. The record is not
entirely
clear, but
Ministers clearly had a very serious discussion in the period
16-18
January,
but it doesn’t seem to have been a formal meeting.”94
“In my own
calculations, I didn’t feel particularly comfortable about it. I
mean,
we are talking
about this purely from the point of view of how important we
were
to the
Americans.
“… [M]y own
evidence may seem certainly slanted because of the way in which
the
documents
were around and have fallen, and I can’t find the note that I wrote
to
Geoff Hoon
over Christmas.
“I think we
need to remember … The main purpose of our military build-up was
to
help
convince them [Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis] that we were in
deadly earnest
… and that
they would do much better to pursue the UN route and disarm and
allow
the
inspectors back, and then none of this military action would be
necessary.
“So the
most important objective … was … to have a real impact on
Iraqi
perceptions
… It was not the most important thing to actually have impact
on
American
perceptions. That was obviously a vital thing, but … a secondary
issue.
It wasn’t
the first thing I thought about.
“… [I]n
that sense it didn’t make much difference whether we were going to
the
North or
the South, but frankly I thought the North would have more effect
on Iraqi
perceptions
if we could have achieved it …”95
266.
Asked whether
there was any high level discussion across Whitehall of the
issues
he had
raised in his minute of 14 January, Sir Kevin replied:
“No, I
don’t think so … the context is important here. My discussion with
Geoff Hoon
before that
was much wider, and it covered the whole range of issues in terms
of
what were
our basic interests and what were we trying to achieve, and the
risks
of carrying
on without a full Ministerial discussion.
“He [Mr
Hoon] simply asked me personally to give him my fullest view about
the
nature of
the US/UK relationship in all its aspects, not to consult anyone,
entirely
privately,
because he wanted to have all the information that might be
necessary
at his
fingertips, should he get into the type of discussion with his
colleagues.
94
Private
hearing, 6 May 2010, pages 19-20.
95
Private
hearing, 6 May 2010, pages 21-22.
424