British report declares Iraq war ‘unjustified’

Thirteen years after Western troops swept Saddam Hussein out of power in Iraq, a British inquiry declared the effort “unjustified.” The so-called Chilcot report, at 2.6 million words long, said Hussein did not pose an “imminent threat” and military action was not the “last resort” its advocates claimed. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who bore the brunt of the report’s criticism, said he accepted responsibility for the decisions he made while in office and recognized many people thought he’d done the wrong thing. But he also defended his actions, saying he thought “the human cost of inaction” would have been greater in the long term.