Chilcott Inquiry - Blair Case For War 'Self-Serving'

The Blair government undermined the United Nations, bowed to U.S. political pressure and relied on self-serving arguments to justify its decision to invade Iraq, according to evidence to the Chilcot inquiry by international lawyers.
A key theme of the evidence, yet to be published, is that the government weakened the U.N., damaging the country's reputation in the process - arguments made by Ed Miliband in his inaugural speech to the Labor conference.
Ralph Zacklin, the British-born U.N. assistant secretary general for legal affairs at the time, has told the inquiry that the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith,failed to strike a proper balance "between the underlying political concerns of the government and respect for the rule of law" in adopting the view that a fresh U.N. Security Council resolution was not needed. Goldsmith's interpretation of previous U.N. resolutions was "self-serving".
"The damage to the U.K. and credibility of the security council was very significant", he told the Guardian Thursday. "It was pretty clear [Goldsmith] was under a lot of pressure".
Zacklin said the way Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, dismissed the advice of his own lawyers was particularly shocking. Chilcot has heard that Sir Michael Wood, warned Straw that "to use force without security council authority would amount to a crime of aggression".