In the Observer...
David Aaranovitch argues strenously that just because it was all wrong doesn't mean that Blair lied over WMD. He too was misled.This accusation is wrong and scrutiny of the Hutton and Butler reports (not so much their findings) and the evidence submitted to the inquiries shows that Blair was setting out - albeit in leadership-speak - what he was being told by the intelligence services...It turned out to be wrong, but not, as so many have lazily called it, false. Now, you may take the view that the wrongness is sufficient reason to punish the government. That someone's head should roll for the fact that what was promised was different from what was delivered. But that, my fellow liberals, still wouldn't make the PM a liar.
This is of course the culmination of Aaronovitch's efforts to get out of his famous pronouncement in 2003 when he said this:
These [WMD] claims cannot be wished away in the light of a successful war. If nothing is eventually found, I - as a supporter of the war - will never believe another thing that I am told by our government, or that of the US ever again. And, more to the point, neither will anyone else. Those weapons had better be there somewhere.
posted by Matthew @ 3/13/2005 05:21:00 PM
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