9.8 |
Conclusions: The post-conflict period
•
The UK spent
time and energy on rewriting strategies, which tended to
describe
a desired
end state without setting out how it would be reached.
•
UK forces
withdrew from Iraq in 2009 in circumstances which did not meet
objectives
defined in
January 2003.
3.
Before the
invasion began, the UK defined ambitious objectives for Iraq after
the
removal of
Saddam Hussein and his regime from power.
4.
The UK’s
strategic objectives for Iraq were described by Mr Jack Straw,
the Foreign
Secretary,
in a Written Ministerial Statement on 7 January 2003. The
objectives included
the
following definition of the UK’s desired end state:
“We would
like Iraq to become a stable, united and law abiding state,
within
its present
borders, co-operating with the international community, no
longer
posing a
threat to its neighbours or to international security, abiding by
all its
international
obligations and providing effective and representative government
to
5.
At the Azores
Summit on 16 March, Mr Blair, President Bush and Mr José
María
Aznar, the
Prime Minister of Spain, declared in the ‘Vision for Iraq and the
Iraqi People’:
“We will
work to prevent and repair damage by Saddam Hussein’s regime
to
the natural
resources of Iraq and pledge to protect them as a national asset
of
and for the
Iraqi people. All Iraqis should share the wealth generated by
their
national economy
…
“In
achieving this vision, we plan to work in close partnership with
international
institutions,
including the United Nations … If conflict occurs, we plan to seek
the
adoption,
on an urgent basis, of new United Nations Security Council
resolutions
that would
affirm Iraq’s territorial integrity, ensure rapid delivery of
humanitarian
relief, and
endorse an appropriate post-conflict administration for Iraq. We
will also
propose
that the Secretary General be given authority, on an interim basis,
to ensure
that the
humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people continue to be met through
the
Oil‑for-Food
program.
“Any
military presence, should it be necessary, will be temporary and
intended to
promote
security and elimination of weapons of mass destruction; the
delivery of
humanitarian
aid; and the conditions for the reconstruction of Iraq. Our
commitment
to support
the people of Iraq will be for the long term.”2
1
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 7 January
2003, column 4WS.
2
Statement
of the Atlantic Summit, 16 March 2003, ‘A Vision for Iraq and the
Iraqi People’.
471