The absence of important cabinet papers on Australia’s decision to join the war against Iraq should surprise no one. The justification itself, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was in the process of gaining nuclear weapons, was dramatically shown to be false. The spin that leaders such as George W. Bush and Tony Blair operated in good faith belies the truth of either falsity, or credulity unworthy of a national leader.

Iraq was probably the most surveilled country in the world. There was no place weapons inspectors could not go, including Saddam’s palaces. The illusion of WMDs was not a failure of intelligence agencies, of which the US has among the world’s most capable. The justification, like the decision to go to war, was a political one, leaving the real motivation as a topic of much speculation.

Illustration: Simon Letch Credit:

Australia’s calculation, on the other hand, had less to do with Iraq and more to do with Australia’s determination to bind itself to the US for moral leverage should it ever need America to come to its defence. Simple, and effective. While passing US presidents such as Donald Trump may be disrespectful to an Australian prime minister, as Trump was to Malcolm Turnbull, the US establishment, from the Congress to the military, honours that bond.

But Australia and the West boast of moral and legal decision-making. The decision to invade Iraq failed those high standards. Australia’s Labor Party was then in opposition and opposed to the war. Now in government, it has rightly initiated a review of why crucial documents were not provided to the National Archives. It is reassuring that........

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