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British airmen on a counter-insurgency patrol in Basra

If beleaguered Gordon Brown hoped to appease his critics by announcing a long-promised inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq War, he must be disappointed. The investigation, postponed while troops were still in the field, should settle questions over Britain’s involvement in the conflict that still rankle the public. But under pressure from the military and rival politicians, the prime minister was forced to drop his original plan to hold all hearings behind closed doors. Brown’s preference for privacy, however, was rooted in more than a wish to cover up government error. The prime minister insisted that sitting in private was necessary for national security and to allow witnesses to speak candidly. The same terms governed a similar inquiry into the run-up to the 1982 Falklands war, generally seen as a successful and cost-effective exercise. A full-blown public inquiry, according to Brown, would spell delays and “lawyers, lawyers, lawyers.” He has a point. Back in 1998, the government announced a public inquiry into Northern Ireland’s “Bloody Sunday” incident of 1972. After 11 years it has still to report, and the total cost is put at more than $290 million, with legal bills accounting for more than half the total. That’s a victory for the lawyers, not for truth.