90s heavyweights Hillary and Blair under fire amid scandal reports

Today saw the release of the Chilcot Report in the UK, Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the circumstances leading to the declaration of the Iraq War in 2003. It concluded that the war in Iraq was unjustified.

“We have concluded that the U.K. chose to join the invasion of Iraq before peaceful options had been exhausted,” Chilcot said.

“Military action at that time was not a last resort.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who voted against the invasion in 2003, said that the war was “an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext.”

Several veterans and their families are now calling for Corbyn to indict former Prime Minister Tony Blair for war crimes.  Rose Gentle, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, had some harsh words for Blair.

“He will be remembered not as a prime minister, but a person who sent them on an illegal war,” Gentle told The Guardian.  “I would love to see him in court.”

In response to overwhelming criticism, Blair held a news conference and claimed responsibility for the war.  He acknowledged mistakes and failures in the mission, but did not apologize for the decision to go to war.

“The world was, and is in my judgment, a better place without Saddam Hussein,” Blair said.  “I believe I made the right decision and that the world is better and safer as a result of it.”

Just 24 hours earlier across the Atlantic, U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was dealing with her own critics after FBI Director James Comey recommended no criminal charges filed against the former Secretary of State.

“The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment,” Donald Trump posted on Twitter immediately after Comey’s statement.

Trump, who has been trailing behind Clinton in the polls since May, looks to use Comey’s remarks regarding the former Secretary’s emails to his advantage from here on out.

“There is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Comey said in his statement.

Citizens from the U.S. and U.K. are outraged with their respective governments.  Legal experts suggest that it will be difficult to prosecute Tony Blair on criminal charges, given that no court may have jurisdiction over an unjust decision to go to war.

Professors and experts in the States are saying the same thing about Clinton’s situation.  While it has been confirmed that classified information was destroyed during Clinton’s tenure with the State Department, there is no evidence that suggests these actions were intentional.

“The statute is what is called a specific intent statute.  To violate it, she would not only have had to destroy docs but also have done so with specific goal of impeding an investigation,” law professor Kimberly Ferzan told The Tab.

House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed his concern with the FBI’s decision, saying that Comey’s recommendation “defies explanation.”  He went on to add that, “declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent.”

With the U.S. government having the lowest approval rating in recent history and Brexit all but tearing apart the U.K., these reports couldn’t have come at a worse time.  America may yet see a political revolution with Donald Trump, while the U.K. could become an entirely different country very soon.