The ongoing Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War has seen Tony Blair hauled over the coals without the safety net of the Downing Street PR machine

Although many will relish seeing him sqirm what about the others with blood on their hands? Blair may have pulled the trigger but there were plenty others only too willing to aim the gun and who are all too conspicuous by their silence around his appearance.

Only two members of cabinet resign over the decision to go to war, ehe vast majority of Parliament  supported the invasion as did a gung ho media. The same media that are now queuing up to brand him 'Bliar'.

We now know that Britain went to war over a lie and was in probability illegal, so why not use this enquiry to get answers to an Iraq question that's not being asked?

The British army's defeat in Basra is one of the hidden scandals of this illegal war. Under the cover of 'handover' the British Army was forced to relinquish control of the city of Basra to Shi'te policeman loyal to enemy militia in 2007. It was only when it became apparent that this handover was nothing more than a humiliating retreat by the British to the relative safety of the airport, that the true situation became apparent and the Americans had to step in to retake the city from the hands of the rebel insurgents.

I'm sure militarily this was the right decision but why did the government under Gordon Brown allow this to happen? Basra was a news black out on orders of Whitehall so the true nature of the defeat was never reported.

It was presented by the MoD as the successful conclusion of campaign that had driven out insurgents and power handed back to a stable civil authority Nothing could have been further from the truth. What wasn't reported was why the British were able to retreat unmolested from their base in the middle of city to the airport. Not because they had total control of the city, far from it, they had bribed the Mehdi Army, who were responsible for the deaths of 11 British soldiers in recent months, to guarantee their protection. Not only were the British forced to hand over the city to what was essentially the enemy but they had to pay to get out with their lives

Worringly a similar scene can be seen unfolding in Afghanistan. In Sanguin control had to be handed over to the Americas to secure some sort of peace. The British did not have the resources to do the job. One hundred lives have been lost in this province, but as the Americas are discovering, to get the job done requires a bigger surrender of blood than the British were prepared to give. They have lost 26 men in one month trying to achieve their objectives. But it seems to be working Sanguin is now relatively safe, certainly more so than any time the British were in charge.

These failures are not the fault of the commanders or foot soldiers on the ground but the fault of politicians who time after time seem to be dragging this country into wars without the equipment and resources to do the job and most worryingly of all without any real end game.

Why this is allowed to happen should be the real purpose of Chilcot.