The man who was the British Secretary of State for Defence from 1999 through 2005, Geoff Hoon, has admitted that fatal errors were made in the run up to the illegal invasion of Iraq and the early days of the occupation. He says that Britain disagreed with the US in many areas but failed to obtain any leverage in Washington. He puts much of the blame on the failure of the Blair government to recognise the incredible influence that US Vice President "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney. In Mr. Hoon's words:
"Sometimes ... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don [Rumsfeld] and Jack [Straw] had made his point with Colin [Powell] and the decision actually came out of a completely different place. And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney."
He admits that the plans were too optimistic about the reaction of the Iraqi populace to the invasion; he admits that dismantling Iraqi ministries and stripping the ministries of all members of the Ba'ath Party were mistakes.
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