The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
campaign
through Package 3, we would be under less pressure to finance a
share of the
post-conflict
reconstruction effort”.
709.
Mr Blair
decided that the MOD should tell the US that the UK was prepared to
“put
Package 3
on the same basis as Package 2 for planning purposes, in order to
keep the
option
open”.
710.
Asked why
there might have been a reluctance in government during
September
and October
to go beyond Package 2, Sir Kevin Tebbit told the Inquiry that one
reason
was:
“… the lack
of clarity of the overall plans still at that point. I think the
Chiefs of
Staff were
very assiduous throughout this period of always asking whether, in
the
discussions
with the United States … the US had ‘a winning
concept’.
“… [U]nless
and until the Chiefs of Staff were satisfied there was a
winning
concept –
and remember, we were talking about aftermath or the day after as
well
as the
actual operation itself - then obviously there was a
reservation.”353
711.
The shift in
UK military focus from northern to southern Iraq, and changes in
the
attitude of
the Chiefs of Staff to the desirability of a significant UK
military contribution to
Phase IV
early in 2003 are addressed in Section 6.2.
712.
Between
October and December 2002, UK officials expressed
growing
concern
about the slow progress of post-conflict planning.
713.
By early
October, restrictions on contacts with the US and UN
were
constraining
DFID’s ability to plan effectively.
714.
After a
visit to the US by Mr Chakrabarti in late September to
discuss
humanitarian
planning, Ms Short stopped further contact between DFID
and
US officials,
concerned about the potential political implications of DFID
being
seen to
prepare for war.
715.
DFID was
also under instruction from the Cabinet Office not to
discuss
humanitarian
issues with the UN system.
716.
Those
restrictions had been lifted by the beginning of
November.
717.
The DFID draft
paper on humanitarian consequences of military action
discussed
by the AHGI
on 11 October explained that planning was constrained by the
shortage of
353
Public
hearing, 3 December 2009, pages 42-43.
232