I think your photograph captures the intense passion we British feel for this issue far better than words ever could. Well done.

You wrote:

“Folks in the UK are upset that no weapons of mass destruction have
been found in Iraq, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Tony
Blair on the theory that he lied to Parliament about Iraqi
capabilities. People have a difficult time believing that
intelligence reports could have been so wrong.”

You miss the point. The intelligence wasn’t wrong – it was absent. It now seems that Tony DID NOT have intelligence saying the Iraqis had WMD ready for use, but he told Parliament that he did, to persuade Parliament to authorise the invasion. Lying to Parliament, if proven, will lose him his job as PM overnight.

At the time, Germany and the Soviet Union were already at war and had been so for years. This was a real war, one in which the Soviets lost as many people as Iraq has people.

The Soviets weren’t trying to justify improper action, they were trying to win a fight to the death. The western powers had no such issues. Their leaders were trying to persuade ignorant citizenry within their own nations to permit action. The governments used the appropriate tools for their own publics.

Do people in the U.S. really care?

“People have a difficult time believing that intelligence reports could have been so wrong.”

Actually, no. As Jeremy Hardy noted tonight, most people didn’t believe the intelligence reports when they were published in September in Tony’s ‘magic dossier’, and he’s now being called on it. ‘Fool me once, won’t get fooled again.’ as Dubya once said.

The real point is that they are our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES. (Well, barring the whole Florida thing…) Therefore they are accountable to us. And if they exaggerate, “sex up” and sometimes downright lie, that is cause for serious questions to be asked.

The real cause for concern is the US, a nation run by an unelected ignorant fool who has his finger on the trigger of over 10,000 nuclear warheads – enough to blow the world up hundreds of times over.

The point is that in the UK the government’s entire case for war was WMDs – unlike Bush, Blair claimed that it wasn’t about Regime Change.

I don’t think the concern is that the intelligence might have been wrong (though some of it clearly was). It’s that the government may have “sub-edited” the intelligence reports for their own ends.

“Since 1998 no credible intelligence has been brought forward which suggests that Iraq is manufacturing weapons of mass destruction or has developed capabilities for delivery of such weapons.”

Source URL: Kucinich: How to Avoid War With Iraq

This is quite interesting. The British don’t normally make a fuss about Government politicians lying. I’m rare in that I view it as a subvertion of democracy; Government has so much power over information that if it consciously lies it can obtain votes under false pretences. This attitude seems far more common in the US. Or did, up to now. Also, of course, the British took proportionally higher casualties, having the Iraqis and the US firing at them. To be sent to be shot by the US on the basis of a US untruth, amplified by your own givernment, is…typical I suppose.
The world is still best described by 50s science fiction stories. In this case “The Liberation of Earth” by “William Tenn”.

The point is not on wrong intelligence reports, but on using WMD as a justification.
This is lying.

“US choice of disarmament to justify Iraq was political: Wolfowitz”

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030529/pl_afp/iraq_us_britain_weapons_030529190059