Cabinet papers on Iraq War decision MIA

One of two Diggers to die during the Iraq conflict, Jake Kovco, was shot by his own gun, and John Howard made a great show of attending the corporal’s funeral in his small Victorian High Country hometown to calm fears and criticism about the war. But Australians remain none the wiser about what prompted the prime minister to go to war nearly 21 years ago. And they may stay in the dark for a little while longer.

The National Archives of Australia on Monday released the cabinet papers of Howard’s government, but the submissions relied upon by the nation’s spy agencies to justify the decision to join the “coalition of the willing” were missing in action.

Former prime minister John Howard preparing to visit Australian troops in Iraq in 2004.Credit: Reuters / Ray Strange

Under legislation, 20-year-old cabinet papers are released each January 1, and it is not unusual for a small quantity of material contained in the records to be withheld from public access. They deal mainly with intelligence, foreign affairs and trade issues.

But in an unprecedented development, “apparent administrative oversights” by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Archives and security agencies meant some documents were not transferred. The department believes the mistake is probably the result of 2020 COVID-19 disruptions. The errant cabinet records have been located and the head of ASIO at the time, Dennis Richardson, has been appointed to review their contents by month’s end.

According to the released cabinet papers, Howard told his colleagues on March 18, 2003, that he had received a formal request from US president George W. Bush that “Australia participate in military action by a coalition to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction”. And he went into parliament and said just that.

But there were no weapons of mass destruction. Australia sent soldiers into war for what has proven to be a lie.

The war cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and triggered a sectarian conflict that has cast a long shadow over the country. The cost for Australia was considerable too and is ongoing: over six years’ combat deployment, two died (Kovco and David Nary, who was struck by a vehicle while training in a neighbouring country), 27 were injured, 243 veterans were diagnosed with PTSD, and the cost has topped $2.4 billion, with counting continuing.

Australians have never really known why we fought in Iraq. Compare and contrast investigations carried out by one of our main allies to understand the flaws in the process that took the UK into Iraq, particularly in terms of how prime minister Tony Blair made the decisions he did.

The closest Australia has approached to a wide-ranging inquiry into the decision to enter the Iraq War was the inquiry of 2004 headed by senior diplomat and former head of the Office of National Assessments, Philip Flood. The inquiry talked to a range of senior political and intelligence figures including Howard, then-treasurer Peter Costello and then-foreign minister Alexander Downer, and took submissions from the spy agencies. But those submissions, and their reports to the Howard government, were not released.

The only extra information forthcoming about the costly misadventure surfaces occasionally when retired politicians involved with the decision write their self-justifying memoirs.

Howard’s brave and principled decision to stand with Timor-Leste during the independence vote in 1999 is one of the foreign policy highlights of his prime ministership, but the absence of information on the Iraq War tarnishes that legacy.

Now with some politicians beating the drums of war again we would hope that the Richardson review finds no reason to withhold the spy agencies’ advice. The information could allow a better understanding to prevent such a poor decision being made in the future. There is little reason but much madness in being so hurt by a decision without learning the lessons of the mistake.

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