20 years anniversary of the illegal Iraq invasion - BBC

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It is a grim irony that the invasion has dropped out of political and public debate in the US, which conceived and led it, and in the UK, its closest ally in the coalition. The Americans and British bear a heavy responsibility for what happened after the invasion, and its consequences also affect them.

Iraq's tyrant, Saddam Hussein, was well worth overthrowing - he had imprisoned and killed thousands of Iraqis, even using chemical weapons against rebellious Kurds. The problem was how it was done, the way the US and UK ignored international law, and the violence that gripped Iraq after the Bush administration failed to make a plan to fill the power vacuum created by regime change.

The past 20 years since the invasion, coming on top of Saddam's dictatorship, add up to almost half a century of torture for the Iraqi people.

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When the US and UK could not persuade the UN Security Council to pass a resolution explicitly authorising invasion and regime change, Messrs Bush and Blair claimed earlier resolutions gave them the authority they needed.

Among many who did not buy their argument was the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a BBC interview 18 months after the invasion, he said it was "not in conformity" with the UN Charter - in other words, illegal. France and other Nato allies refused to join the invasion. Tony Blair ignored huge protests in the UK. His decision to go to war dogged the rest of his political career.