LONDON—Britain’s decision to go to war in Iraq was a failure born of flawed intelligence, lack of foresight and “wholly inadequate” planning, an official inquiry concluded Wednesday in a report seven years in the making.
Retired civil servant John Chilcot, who oversaw the inquiry, said “the U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.”
The 2.6-million-word report is an exhaustive verdict on a divisive conflict that—by the time British combat forces left in 2009 — had killed 179 British troops, almost 4,500 American personnel and more than 100,000 Iraqis.
It continues to divide Britain and overshadows the legacy of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. As Chilcot introduced his report at a London conference center on Wednesday, dozens of anti-war protesters with placards reading “Bliar” rallied outside.
For families of British troops who died in the conflict, the long litany of mistakes by Blair and others provides some vindication of their struggle to hold the war’s planners to account.
