What they’re saying about: The Iraq war inquiry

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement of a formal independent inquiry into the Iraq war has proved highly controversial, mainly because of his insistence that it be held behind closed doors and that it's purpose should not be to apportion blame but to identify "lesson learned".

The investigation, to be chaired by civil servant Sir John Chilcot, will cover the period from July 2001 to July 2009 and is expected to take more than a year to complete, thus taking its findings beyond the next general election.

GENERAL SIR MIKE JACKSON, HEAD OF THE ARMY DURING THE IRAQ INVASION:

"I would have no problem at all in giving my evidence in public. We are told that having a private inquiry will make people more candid. But none of the evidence will be given under oath and also the inquiry has no power of subpoena. These are things that should be looked at."

AIR MARSHAL SIR JOHN WALKER, FORMER HEAD OF DEFENCE INTELLIGENCE:

"There is only one reason that the inquiry is being heard in private and that is to protect past and present members of this Government. There are 179 [the number of British servicemen and women who have died in Iraq] reasons why the military want the truth to be out on what happened over Iraq."

Reg Keys, whose son Thomas, a military policeman, died in Iraq in 2003:

"It is an inquiry by mandarins. There are no senior military figures on the panel. I am not happy that it is behind closed doors. It will not have any credibility. I understand that certain sessions should be in camera for national security, but if there were some sessions in public it could go a long way to help the grieving process… I would have liked to have sat in the public inquiry and hear Tony Blair give his evidence."

Conservative leader David Cameron:

"The inquiry needs to be seen to be truly independent and not just an establishment stitch-up. Shouldn't the inquiry have the ability to apportion blame? If mistakes were made, we need to know who made them and why they were made."

Daily Mail, comment:

"So the Iraq War is to end as it began - under a blanket of secrecy and deceit, spun to keep the public in the dark about how Britain came to be ensnared in this bloody and shameful disaster. In a gross insult to our supposed democracy, Gordon Brown has announced that the long-overdue inquiry into a war which the majority of the British people opposed vehemently will be conducted entirely behind closed doors, with no evidence at all to be heard in public. What an affront to the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have died in this terrible war."

Michael Mates, Tory MP backing the plans:

"Everybody who came in front of us [on the Butler inquiry into the intelligence that led to the Iraq war] was able to speak frankly and they were able to say what part they had played in this bit of intelligence or that. I don't think we could have done as good a job for the country as we were able to do if we had to sit in public."

Times, editorial:

"Iraq is a better place for the removal of Saddam and the belated success of counterinsurgency operations. Whether that justifies the initial military intervention is a question beyond the competence of a public inquiry. At best there is diminishing value in persisting with this exercise till critics of the Iraq war are satisfied with the conclusion. At worst, it is an exercise in short-term political cynicism intended to buy off the war critics. The result will be to undermine the credibility of such inquiries and, ultimately, to satisfy no one."

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader:

"This, remember, was probably the biggest foreign policy mistake that any government has made since Suez. It's very important the the process by which we learn the lessons from that is open - the process of doing it is almost as important as the conclusions themselves. This would have been a great moment for Gordon Brown, who has said he wanted more openness and transparency in politics, to show he meant it."

John Miller, whose son Simon was killed in Iraq in 2003

"To be honest, I could write on the back of a stamp what you would learn from this inquiry and that would be lies and deceit."

Daily Telegraph, editorial

"Mr Brown was surely right to say that the primary purpose of the inquiry must not be to 'apportion blame'. The public hunger for identifying those who got us into the mess has faded; if Lord Butler's devastating findings failed to shame any politicians or intelligence officials into resignation, it is unlikely that Sir John's verdict will do so. What we do need to know, in unsparing detail, is what went wrong. With British forces deployed in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, it is more vital than ever that we learn from the mistakes made in Iraq."