Jeremy Corbyn to apologise for Iraq war if elected UK Labour leader

[steve2470]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/jeremy-corbyn-to-apologise-for-iraq-war-if-elected-uk-labour-leader/articleshow/48582637.cms

LONDON: The Iraq war was thrust into the centre of the UK Labour party's leadership race after front runner Jeremy Corbyn said he would apologise for the conflict and had to defend his comments comparing the Islamic State to the US military.

Corbyn said if he wins the contest he will issue a formal apology on behalf of Labour which led the country into the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent conflict under premier Tony Blair.

Corbyn, who fiercely opposed the war at the time, said Blair had taken Britain into the conflict "on the basis of deception" and that his decision to support then US president George W Bush in a joint invasion had cost Labour millions of voters.

In a statement to the Guardian, Corbyn said "It is past time that Labour apologised to the British people for taking them into the Iraq war on the basis of deception and to the Iraqi people for the suffering we have helped cause. Under our Labour, we will make this apology".

[BillZBubb]

1. Better yet, how about promising to bring Blair to trial?

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Party leaders don't bring prosecutions; not even Prime Ministers do

Nor is the Director of Public Prosecutions a political appointment in the UK unlike the Attorney General in the USA.

[Jeneral2885]

3. yes

you can join him. And give away the Falklands, Gibraltar and withdraw troops.

[Ken Burch]

4. Excellent. That justifies making him leader if nothing else does.

No candidate for the Labour leadership who still thinks that war was right could possibly be worth electing leader.

[T_i_B]

5. Although Labour didn't lose this year because of Iraq

It remains a major problem for the Burnham & Cooper campaigns, who can't go after Corbyn on foreign affairs because of their previous support for the Iraq war.