In the continuing debate over the merits of a parliamentary system of government such as the one in Great Britain versus the presidential one used here in the US, is this a score for the UK? Or does it come from having handed over real power to another, leaving Britain with the ability to debate and judge on a more realistic level, while the US struggles with irrelevant questions about how to maintain a fading empire?

General Sir Michael Rose, who was adjutant general of the British army and commander of the UN protection force in Bosnia, makes this case:

Now it is clear that parliament was misled by Mr Blair, either wittingly or unwittingly, parliament should also call on him for a full explanation as to why he went to war. It is not a sufficient excuse for Mr Blair to say that he acted in good faith and that his decisions were based on the intelligence he had been given. For it is the clear responsibility of people in his position to test intelligence. No intelligence can ever be taken at face value. Indeed it is negligent so to do.

Parliament should therefore ascertain how far the prime minister did evaluate intelligence regarding WMD and how he assessed the reliability of the many sources that provided that intelligence. It should ask him what corroborating evidence there was for his specific statement about WMD — and why more use was not made of the UN inspectors on the ground in Iraq to test the validity of that statement. It should inquire just how much he discounted the mass of intelligence that came in from the Iraqi National Congress — a body that had a vested interest in removing Saddam from power. The list of possible questions is huge and would no doubt be usefully expanded during any hearings.