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On Wednesday 25 March members of Military Families Against the War delivered a letter to Gordon Brown calling for a full public inquiry into the Iraq war and its background.

Reg Keys, Rose Gentle and Peter Brierley all lost sons in the Iraq war and have campaigned tirelessly for an Inquiry.

Later in Parliament foreign secretary David Milliband confirmed that an Inquiry will begin in July.

Letter to Gordon Brown from Military Families

Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

25th March 2009.

Dear Prime Minister,

We present this letter to you today to urge your support for a full Public Inquiry into events leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

As you can appreciate the families of the fallen need to know the full circumstances that led to the untimely deaths to our sons in order to move on in the grieving process. Whilst we accept the risk of death and serious injury goes along with being a serving soldier we cannot accept that our loved ones died deceived and there has been no accountability for that misleading deceit.

When deployed ill-equipped to Iraq, our sons’ believed the conflict was to neutralise the Weapons of Mass Destruction threat, and they were likely to face chemical and biological attack. This simply was not the case as Weapons Inspectors had previously alluded to.

Sadly our loved ones laid down their young lives believing this ‘falsehood’ and WMD ‘spin’. On the 24th September 2002 your predecessor Tony Blair incited fear in the ‘House’ and amongst the general public when he addressed Parliament with misleading rhetoric. Quote: ‘Evidence gathered over four years was detailed, extensive and authoritative. Iraq has chemical and biological weapons which can be activated in 45 minutes. This programme being active, detailed and growing, up and running now!’ Unquote.

It has now become abundantly clear the above was not the case and such comments were reckless falsehoods and spin intent on scare mongering in an attempt to justify an invasion with scant regard for the consequences. Indeed Sir Richard Dearlove chief of the Intelligence Services had stated twelve days earlier that. Quote:‘the intelligence was untried and untested and sources were unremarkable based on hearsay.’ Unquote.

We the families find ourselves asking the inevitable question, was the conflict legal? Again your predecessor stated in the House in February 2003 that Saddam could stay in power if he handed over Iraq’s WMD. It would now appear that we invaded a Sovereign State to effect regime change which is against International Law. It is now clear that the Iraq conflict was a war of option not necessity.

We also need to know the role Lord Goldsmith played in advising upon the legal decisions to justify an invasion.

As we now find ourselves with the unfortunate legacy of 179 British Service personnel dead, hundred injured, along with the wholesale slaughter of countless thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians we on all sides need to know WHY?

Iraq had no WMD, no links with Al-Qaeda and no connection with ‘9/11’- why Iraq? As the disclosure of the minutes of the cabinet meeting that resulted in the decision to invade Iraq has been vetoed as not been in the public interest (though we can assure you it would be in the families interest) we implore you Prime Minister to support a call for a full public inquiry.

An inquiry would help to ensure this unfortunate episode in British history which led to such an ill-informed campaign will never be allowed to happen again, with lessons being learned from such an inquiry.

A resulting inquiry must be seen to be open, honest and transparent if it is ever to assuage the heartache of the families of the fallen.

Tony Blair said ‘the families can be proud that their loved ones died ‘defending’ their country’. A family member had to correct him. Tony Blair should have said. ‘The families can be proud that their loved ones died ‘serving’ their country.

Iraq had never posed a threat to Britain and therefore there was nothing to defend against’.

Yours faithfully,

Reg Keys
Rose Gentle
Peter Brierley