Iraq War 10 Years On: Was It Worth It? The Huffington Post Debate From Goldsmiths University

Iraq Ten Years On: Was It Worth It?

Ten years on from the invasion of Iraq, the controversial question still remains as to whether or not the war was worth it.

On 7 February, to mark the tenth anniversary of the massive protests and demonstrations against the Iraq war, the Huffington Post UK and Goldsmiths, University of London, hosted a public debate - "Was It Worth It? Iraq, Ten Years On" - which made clear just how emotive and divisive the issue still is.

In what turned out to be a rather heated debate, former Labour cabinet minister Clare Short, Tory MP - and former shadow defence secretary - Bernard Jenkin, Times columnist David Aaronovitch, the Independent's Owen Jones, HuffPost UK's Mehdi Hasan, Dr Ali Latif, chair of the Iraqi Prospects Organisation, Iraqi novelist Haifa Zangana and Shiraz Maher, a terrorism expert from King's College, London, all made passionate and insightful interventions.

HuffPost UK's editor-in-chief, Carla Buzasi, chaired the event, in front of a crowd of more than 400 people in the Great Hall at Goldsmiths.

After two hours of fierce argument, the audience voted overwhelmingly, as it had at the outset, to oppose the claim that the war had been ‘worth it’ – although a handful of them were still undecided.

What do you think? Was the invasion of Iraq right or wrong? Worth it or not worth it? A just humanitarian intervention or a criminal war of aggression? Watch the full debate and then let us know your thoughts...

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