We need to learn the lessons of Iraq before we can move on

By Joe Caluori / @croslandite

During the 2007 Deputy Leadership Election the War in Iraq loomed large, playing the role of Banquo’s ghost at Macbeth’s feast. A large and by then very angry section of Labour members and supporters who had openly opposed the war felt vindicated by the course of events. Those of us in the Labour movement who had supported the invasion were bruised at having the course of events make a mockery of our arguments with friends, family, colleagues and comrades. We’d suffered catastrophic electoral losses in 2003 and 2004, survival in 2005 and further losses in 2006. We were running out of things to tell people in branch meetings, on the doorstep. We were ready to apologise, to rend our garments and gnash our teeth.

There was a mournful feeling that an acid test of our ability to move beyond the Blair years and ‘draw a line’ was for a collective apology from the very top; that it had been a catastrophic error to follow George W Bush into Iraq and our constant assurances that it would ‘all be worth it in the long run’ had turned to ash in our mouths.

The moment never fully came, despite some back and forth in the Newsnight hustings, and the issue remained unresolved.

The current Leadership candidates have a range of views on Iraq; Dianne Abbott can rightly point out that she vociferously opposed the war; Ed Miliband was not an MP at the time of the vote but has powerfully condemned what took place, and showed a willingness to learn the lessons. Ed Balls has also accepted the war was a ‘mistake’ and has admitted culpability in wrongly voting for the war. David Miliband believes we have been punished enough by the voters and thinks it is time to move on, and Andy Burnham openly stands by the decision to invade Iraq.

I can hear the counter arguments to making an issue of the Iraq war in this election; We have a new US President who had openly opposed the war, and the Chilcot inquiry in the UK – we just damage ourselves in the eyes of the public by engaging in lengthy self flagellation exercises over Iraq; the public have moved on and so should we.

But these arguments miss the point. It isn’t about the noise level or what we can and can’t get away with. Banquo’s ghost was silent at the feast – his spectral presence was a silent but powerful rebuke to a warrior-king whose refusal to accept the wrong he had done drove him to madness and self-destruction.

The reason our next leader needs to lead our reckoning for the war in Iraq and help us make our apology to the public, to each other, and to the people of Iraq, is to show that we have learned – that we will never again allow ourselves to be led into a military conflict on a false pretext, and that the first tool we reach for in international conflict resolution will no longer be a jackhammer. This is essential for the next Labour Government to exceed the achievements of the last, and there can be no learning, no development without a reckoning.