The Chilcot report is damning. It exposes a litany of failures

When Keir Starmer declared, “The Chilcot report is damning. It exposes a litany of failures over a long period, including reliance on flawed intelligence assessments, lack of planning and insufficient foresight of obvious consequences. But the report also exposes a chilling lack of rigour and a political culture of deference,” he spoke not merely as a lawyer or a politician, but as a witness to the tragic cost of complacency in power. His words echo like an indictment not only of one war, but of every age in which leaders forget that truth, once bent, becomes the root of ruin.

The Chilcot Report, published in 2016, was the long-awaited reckoning of the United Kingdom’s involvement in the Iraq War — a war born, as Starmer said, from flawed intelligence, haste, and deference to authority. It revealed how decisions of grave consequence were made not in the bright light of evidence, but in the shadow of assumption and fear. The ancient philosophers would have called this hubris — the arrogance of mortals who trust their own certainty more than the hard discipline of reason. And from such arrogance, tragedy is always born.

In his phrase, “a chilling lack of rigour,” Starmer points to the most dangerous decay of any civilization: when those entrusted with power cease to question, to verify, to challenge. Rigour — the sharpness of thought, the courage to doubt — is the sword that keeps corruption at bay. When it is sheathed, the empire of truth falls silently to ruin. Likewise, his words on the “political culture of deference” warn us that when people bow too easily before authority, when they mistake loyalty for virtue, they invite the slow death of accountability. For power, unchecked, grows blind; and those who obey without question soon find themselves complicit in folly.

So it was with the Iraq War, a conflict waged upon the foundation of false intelligence — the claim of weapons that did not exist. Nations were led into war by leaders who trusted whispers more than wisdom, and by advisors too timid to speak truth to power. The ancient historian Thucydides would have recognized this pattern well, for he wrote of Athens’ ruin when ambition overruled caution and deference silenced dissent. History repeats itself when memory grows dull.

The story of the Chilcot Report is not only about governments — it is a mirror for all human endeavor. In every age, in every company, in every heart, there lies the temptation to obey rather than to think, to conform rather than to question. Yet progress is not born from obedience, but from courageous inquiry. The scientist who doubts an old theory, the reformer who questions a cruel law, the citizen who challenges injustice — these are the heirs of rigour. To surrender this spirit is to surrender the very essence of freedom.

Let us then take Starmer’s words as both lament and summons. He warns that deference is the enemy of democracy, that rigour is the duty of every free mind. The ancients taught that truth is not inherited — it must be earned anew by every generation. So must we cultivate vigilance as others cultivate fields. We must train our minds to discern, our voices to speak, and our hearts to resist the comfort of silent obedience.

If you would live wisely, learn from this lesson of history: question with respect, but never surrender your reason. Do not mistake power for wisdom, nor position for truth. Whether in government, in work, or in the quiet choices of your daily life, demand rigour of yourself and of others. For when truth is guarded by doubt, justice endures; but when it is left to deference, the powerful will write lies into law.

And so, remember — the fall of great nations begins not with the rise of tyrants, but with the silence of thinkers. Be not silent. Be the voice that asks the hard question, the mind that demands evidence, the heart that refuses to bow. For in such vigilance lies the safeguard of freedom — and in such courage, the redemption of the human soul.