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UK Foreign Secretary Blamed US For Rise Of ISIS; Chilcot Report Slams Prime Minister Blair

By Dee Sharp
Published on: 11:39 PST, Jul 7, 2016

U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has gone on record saying that he blamed the U.S., specifically Paul Bremer, for the rise of ISIS according to The Guardian.

Bremer, an American diplomat who was given the charge of running Iraq in 2003 by US President George Bush, was criticized by Hammond during the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing. Secretary Hammond said that the decision by Bremer to dismantle the Iraqi army and the removal of supporters of the Ba’ath party from the Iraqi army was the direct reason the formation of the Islamic State happened. Because of Bremer’s decision, 400,000 unemployed Iraqi soldiers were left in Iraq, many of them becoming disgruntled and banding together with Al-Qaeda sympathizers.

The U.K. Foreign Secretary told the foreign affairs select committee that he thought many problems in Iraq today are direct results of Bremer’s disastrous decision.

“Many of the problems we see in Iraq today stem from that disastrous decision to dismantle the Iraqi army and embark on a program of de-ba’athification. That was the mistake of post-conflict planning. If we had gone a different way afterwards we might have been able to see a different outcome.”

The U.K. Foreign Secretary added, “It is clear a significant number of Ba’athist officers have formed the professional core of Daesh [Islamic State/ISIS] in Syria and Iraq and have given that organization the military capability it has shown in conducting its operations.”

The U.K. has also blamed their own Prime Minister Tony Blair for the rise of ISIS as well. The U.K. released the Chilcot report yesterday morning which reported findings of the Iraq War inquiry by the U.K. In that report, which was named after the man who spearheaded the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, was a scathing accusation that Prime Minister Tony Blair had pushed Britain into the Iraq War with the U.S. based on “flawed intelligence” and that the British parliament had warned Blair that such a war would only encourage terrorism by Islamist extremists. Blair was criticized by Chilcot for ignoring the warnings of going into war with Iraq. The report also said that there was “no imminent threat” by Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The Chilcot report also released notes that Blair had sent U.S. President Bush just hours after the 9/11 attacks revealing that the PM was already plotting a war with Iraq. According to the Mirror, the Chilcot report said that Blair had urged Bush on September 12, 2001, to “pursue nations trading Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), saying, “Some of this will require action that some will balk at.”

The very next day on September 3, Blair told Bush, “It would be excellent to get rid of Saddam.”

The 12-volume report also said that Blair told Bush in a phone call that “there needed to be a clever strategy for doing this..an extremely clever plan would be required.”

On July 28, 2002, Blair told Bush, “I will be with you whatever.”

The report goes on to say that from 9/11 on, Blair had “chose tactics” to “emphasize” the threat of Iraq’s alleged WMDs “with a certainty that was not justified.” Chilcot said, “The U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options…had been exhausted.”

The U.S. has also been blamed for the rise of ISIS by Russian PM Putin, and Obama himself has blamed the Iraq War for the rise of ISIS. In light of Secretary Hammond having blamed the U.S. for the rise of ISIS, the U.K. Foreign Secretary recently met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to talk about Brexit and the solidarity of the U.K. remaining allies with the U.S.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Meets With US Secretary of State John Kerry

Do you agree with Foreign Secretary Hammond that the U.S. is to blame for the rise of ISIS? Please share your thoughts below.

[Photo by Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool photo via AP]

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