Quote Originally Posted by BDunnell
If everyone took your view, there would never be any Government inquiries into anything, no matter how serious, no scrutiny of important events after they happen, and no blame attached to wrongdoing because the important thing is to 'look ahead'. This is Tony Blair's line every time his Government gets into trouble — just draw a veil over it, because it will soon go away. Well, sometimes it won't. There would also be no historical record other than the official version, because, according to your view, there's no need to rake up the past. Sometimes, I think there is a very real need to do so.

As for what happened in 1991, you have to ask yourself why the Coalition then didn't take the opportunity to remove Saddam when they certainly had their chances. Except you won't ask yourself that, because it was in the past. I think it's rather important given what is happening now.
That's not what I'm saying at all!
I'm not saying there shouldn't be an inquiry into any wrong doings or mistake at all. I think I've actually said we should learn from our mistakes. In most cases, there is an inquiry, and we do learn from these mistakes.

I'm just stating your attitude of 'well, they should have done it years ago' or 'well they shouldn't have let him in the army in the first place' doesn't help things at all. You have to accept mistakes were made, as they can't be changed, and make sure you've learnt from them, and then make the best possible decision now, without making another mistake!

How on earth going back to decisions made years ago, wrongly or rightly, is going to help things NOW is beyond me. Everyone knows we should have removed Saddam in 91, so saying now, in 2007 'well we should have done it in 91' isn't going do much to help is it?

It's the attitude, when discussing what we should do in Iraq now, people scream 'we shouldn't be there in the first place' I find annoying- how on earth is that going to be helpful? We need to look to the future, rather than look back at descisions made 20yrs.

But that doesn't mean I don't think we should learn from our mistakes, I think we SHOULD do. But I don't think, when making a decision now, we should just say 'we should have done it right 20yrs ago'. That's not helpful, and doesn't solve anything.