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Former army chief warns Australia not to 'blindly' follow US
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A detail of a declassified handwritten letter sent by the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to former US President George W. Bush, is seen as part of the Iraq Inquiry Report presented by Sir John Chilcot at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, July 6. (Pool via AP/Jeff J Mitchell)
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former Australian army chief has warned Australia against "blindly going along with" the United States after an inquiry was critical of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war.
Australia sent 2,000 troops to support US and British forces in the 2003 invasion. A British government-commissioned report published on Wednesday said former Prime Minister Tony Blair led Britain into an unsuccessful war through a mix of flawed intelligence, "wholly inadequate" planning and an exaggerated sense of the UK's ability to influence the United States.
Peter Leahy, who was Chief of the Australian Army from 2002 to 2008, said Thursday that Australia had to examine how it decides to go to war in light of the report.
