Costs of Iraq War

Call to Chilcot Inquiry to look at all costs of Iraq War

A network of individuals and groups, including Pax Christi, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Justice not Vengeance, Movement for the Abolition of War and Coventry Deanery Justice & Peace Group has written to Sir John Chilcot, urging that the Iraq Inquiry investigate the financial costs to the UK of the Iraq War as an essential aspect of the fulfillment of the Inquiry's remit.

In their letter they draw on the work of Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics, and Linda Bilmes in their publication, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The true cost of the Iraq Conflict, suggesting that the Inquiry carry out investigation into areas such as: budgetary costs, long-term care for veterans and their families, the resetting of defence capabilities, those costs incurred by the country but not sustained by the government, macroeconomic effects of the war and, finally and perhaps most importantly, how to learn from our mistakes.

It is now widely accepted that the Iraq War has been a disaster. At a time when financial issues loom large in the mind of politicians and the general public alike, there is ever more urgency to determine how this bears on such critical matters as the decision to take a country to war, and how that responsibility should be borne.

The new government will be undertaking a Strategic Defence Review and these issues must be taken note of in that Review.

Full text of the letter follows. Continued