LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 05: Former British Prime Minister and former Leader of the opposition Labour Party, Tony Blair (right) leaves his Grosvenor Square offices on July 5, 2016 in London, England. Tomorrow, after many delays, Sir John Chilcot publishes his report into the UK government’s involvement in the 2003 Iraq War under the leadership of Tony Blair. The Iraq Inquiry was set up by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and is published more than seven years after the Inquiry was announced. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Source: Time

By Mark Leftly/London

Critics of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair hope the report will contain revelations damaging enough to lead to impeachment

This week, Tony Blair faces a reckoning.

The former British prime minister’s critics have beenwaiting seven years for an inquiry into the circumstances of the Iraq War, which is finally to be published on Wednesday. In 2003, Blair brought the U.K. in to join President George W Bush’s coalition formed to topple the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein.

Despite the oppression the Iraqi population suffered under Hussein, the invasion was extremely unpopular in Britain. Members of Blair’s cabinet resigned and at least 750,000 peopletook to the streets against military action in Iraq, in a march that police said was the U.K’s biggest ever demonstration.

Now, over a decade later, many in the U.K. believe Blair lied to them over the invasion and that the findings of the Chilcot inquiry will finally spark criminal action against him. It was launched in 2009 by Gordon Brown, who succeeded him as Prime Minister.

It has been a long, complicated journey to reach this point, nearly 15 years after the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks in New York that prompted Western action in the Middle East. It’s clear, though, that Iraq is still dangerously unstable — just this week, a pair of suicide bombers claimed by ISIS killed at least 200 people in the bloodiest single attack in years.

Read more