Darth Vader

Sir John Sawers, now head of MI6 but once a close adviser to Tony Blair, told the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war that foolish decisions to disband the Iraqi army and dismiss thousands of members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party were taken by the US alone without taking into account British advice.

These decisions, as predicted at the time by those with some understanding of Iraq, proved to be disastrous and significantly contributed to the chaos that followed the ousting of Saddam.

Sawers said that the decisions were taken by Paul Bremer, US head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, on the basis of "pre-agreed Washington policy".

Sawers was also less than complimentary about the attire of US soldiers, which he believed caused a lack of rapport with the locals:

"the posture of the US army in their tanks, in their Darth Vader kit with the wraparound sunglasses and helmets and flak jackets and everything else. There was no real rapport between the US army and the ordinary citizens."

However, whilst it may satisfy Labour party politics to blame the US, the UK had the choice not to become involved in this folly; Labour only have themselves to blame for this mess.