Summary: An unrepentant Tony Blair defended his decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq, invoking the discredited neocon argument before a panel investigating the war that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made the threat of weapons of mass destruction impossible to ignore. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 29, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that suicide rates among active-duty U.S. military personnel continuing to rise even as the Defense Department dedicated more resources to identifying troubled service members and getting them the help they need. Preliminary figures confirmed at least 125 soldiers killed themselves in 2008, compared with 115 in 2007, 102 in 2006 and 87 in 2005.
Summary: The Bush administration was “hell bent” on the 2003 military invasion of Iraq and actively undermined efforts by Britain to win international authorization for the war, Jeremy Greenstock, British ambassador to the United Nations from 1998 to 2003, testified before an inquiry into the Iraq war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 27, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that a suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy exploded about 200 yards outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, killing at least four Afghan bystanders, while in Iraq, the country’s parliament approved a security pact with the United States that allowed American troops to stay in the country for three more years.
Summary: Leaked British government documents call into question ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s public statements on the buildup to the Iraq war and show plans for the U.S.-led 2003 invasion were being made more than a year earlier, in February 2002, shortly after the attacks of 9/11. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 22, 2008, Aubrey Immelman noted that in the summer of 2008 U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann claimed she could lower the price of gasoline to $2 a gallon in about two years by increased drilling, including offshore drilling and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; however, just a few months later the price at the pump dropped to nearly $2 in a matter of weeks, purely as a result of reduced demand during the economic recession.
Summary: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has authorized a long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq war, but defied requests from bereaved families and campaigners to hold sessions in public.