8 | The
invasion
the most
appropriate”.3
Mr Boucher
said that “almost all” of the 30 were “associated
somehow
militarily with the action”. A further 15 countries, which he did
not list, were
“co‑operating”,
for example by offering “defensive assets in the event that
Saddam
resorts to
the use of weapons of mass destruction”.
9.
The MOD’s
first account and analysis of the operation, published in July
2003, gave
the total
number of Coalition Forces as 467,000.4
The MOD
also recorded that “some
20 countries
offered or provided military forces or use of military bases” and
“many
others
provided crucial assistance with intelligence, logistics and the
deployment of
combat
units”.
10.
According to
Dr Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s National Security Advisor
in
March 2003,
a total of 33 countries provided troops in support of the military
operation.5
11.
President Bush
put the number of countries providing “crucial support – from the
use
of naval
and air bases, to help with intelligence and logistics” at more
than 35.6
12.
UK military
operations in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 were known by
the
codename
Operation TELIC.
13.
At the start
of Op TELIC, the UK deployed a large scale ground force and
medium
scale air
and maritime forces, totalling 46,150 personnel, to
Iraq.7
As
described in Section 1.1, after the 1991 Gulf Conflict a Royal Navy
frigate or destroyer
was
permanently deployed in the Gulf as part of a US-led naval force to
support the UN
arms
embargo and controls on the export of oil through the
Gulf.
Section 1.1
also describes activity by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in support of
the No-Fly
Zones in
the North and South of Iraq.
A minute
describing a briefing provided to Mr Blair by the Permanent
Joint Headquarters
(PJHQ) on
15 January 2003, recorded that a total of 2,200 individuals were
deployed in
the Gulf at
that time.8
UK forces
included 18 combat aircraft, nine combat support
aircraft,
a number of
nuclear-powered submarines, two destroyers/frigates, five Mine
Counter
Measure
vessels, two survey vessels and one Auxiliary Oiler (for
fuel).
3
Transcript,
18 March 2003, ‘State Department Noon Briefing, March 18,
2003’.
4
Ministry of
Defence, Operations
in Iraq – First Reflections, July
2003.
5
Rice
C. No Higher
Honour: A Memoir of My Years in Washington. Simon
& Schuster, 2011.
6
White House
press release, 19 March 2003, ‘Operation Iraq Freedom: President
Bush Addresses
the Nation’.
7
Ministry of
Defence, Operations
in Iraq: Lessons for the Future, December
2003.
8
Minute
MA/CJO(Ops) to MA/CJO, 15 January 2003, ‘Briefing to Prime
Minister’.
5