Johnson admits failure in Iraq: The invasion was a mistake and there was no Plan B.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has publicly admitted that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a “moral mistake,” in one of the most candid admissions by a senior British official about the failures of the Iraq War.
A report in the Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak quoted Johnson as admitting during a television interview that “the coalition forces did not have a strategy to manage the affairs of Iraq after the invasion, which led to dire consequences for this country.”
The Turkish report, translated by Shafaq News Agency, noted that “Johnson’s confessions are remarkable, as he described the actions of the coalition forces around Iraq as morally wrong, and acknowledged a catastrophic lack of planning for the post-invasion period.”
Johnson also pointed out during the interview that “British and American forces have not developed a coherent strategy for governing Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime.”
The translated report indicated that “the British Prime Minister explained how the coalition forces dismantled the administrative structures in Iraq, without having any alternative strategy.”
The report quoted Johnson as saying, “We had absolutely no plan for who would replace Saddam. We eliminated the entire Baath Party and the entire ruling elite,” indicating that “this complete uprooting of the ruling institutions created a power vacuum and plunged the country into chaos and violence.”
According to Johnson, as quoted in the report, this approach represented a “complete moral failure,” and that British and American diplomats “operated without clear guidance.”
Johnson explains that when he inquired at the time about the plan that had been prepared, he was told, “We are going on a trip,” which represents “an admission that British officials did not have a concrete vision for the future of Iraq, and this led to the collapse of institutions after the country was left without effective governance mechanisms,” according to the newspaper report.
The Turkish report recalled that the invasion of Iraq caused the deaths of approximately 461,000 people between 2003 and 2011, adding that “the conflict radically reshaped the political landscape in Iraq and generated divisions that persist to this day.”
The Turkish report concluded by saying that “Johnson’s remarks represent one of the most candid admissions by a senior British official about the strategic and moral failures of the Iraq War.”
Shafaq.com