Offline: Iraq-the prelude to a global war.

“US military offi cials are expecting that Iraq will use chemical and biological weapons against US and allied forces in the event of war”, wrote our American correspondent, Michael McCarthy, on Feb 22, 2003. He reported on preparations by US forces, which seem surreal now, to protect troops in Iraq from nerve agents, anthrax, botulinum toxin, and even smallpox. Just a few weeks earlier, 500 public health scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine had written an open letter to then Prime Minister Tony Blair on the consequences of a war in Iraq. They drew attention to likely civilian casualties, civil war and a refugee crisis, famine and epidemics, and the eff ects of confl ict on children’s health and development. Carolyn Stephens and her cosignatories also pointed (with disturbing prescience) to “the most worrying eff ect” of a war in Iraq—”its role as an escalator of collective violence”. “Confl ict”, they wrote, “escalates after use of collective force, as violence becomes a more common and legitimated form of political or social action.” On March 8, 2003, Elisabeth Benjamin and a team from the New York-based Center for Economic and Social Rights described the preparedness of Iraq’s health system to respond to the eff ects of a war. They reported pervasive weaknesses—in primary care and hospital services, basic equipment, supplies of medicines, and public health. “Our team found that military intervention in Iraq will severely aff ect an already vulnerable population—a humanitarian disaster is likely to ensue.” On March 20, the bombings on Baghdad began. This week, as violence in Baghdad continued unchecked, the long awaited Chilcot Inquiry published its fi ndings. What was the basis for war? How was the decision to go to war made? How was the war conducted? What lessons can be learned? Answers to these questions have now been off ered. But what of medicine and public health?