“We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.” It took several years, but a British inquiry into the Iraq war has finally been released. Digg has a roundup of the coverage of the findings.

+ One of the more interesting documents released following the inquiry is this memo from Tony Blair to George W. Bush. For those children who read NextDraft, this is not the best first line to use as an opening to a debate: “I will be with you, whatever. But this is the moment to assess bluntly the difficulties. The planning on this and the strategy are the toughest yet. This is not Kosovo. This is not Afghanistan. It is not even the Gulf War.” Yeah, like, not even.

+ More than a decade later, Iraq is the world capital of terrorism.