WAR MISTAKES ADMITTED

The Dutch cabinet has admitted that MPs could have been better informed about security service ‘doubts and conjectures’ about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. And, in their formal response to last month’s highly critical Davids Commission report, ministers say they should have been more open about the US request for assistance prior to the war. The Netherlands supported the invasion politically on the grounds that Saddam Hussein was breaking UN resolutions but did not send troops. The statement follows weeks of debate about how the cabinet should respond to the Davids Commission report. There was almost a cabinet crisis when it was published in mid-January because Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende appeared to dismiss most of its findings.