Iraq inquiry: your Twitter responses
Updated on 27 November 2009
A lot can be said in 140 characters and at the end of week one of the Iraq war inquiry, it's our Iraq inquiry blogger's fingers that are smoking. No sign of the guns yet.
Channel 4 News has been following events, blow-by-blow, at the QEII centre in London as Sir John Chilcot's team investigates the factors which resulted in the 2003 invasion.
Some of you believe this climate of online transparency could have made a difference in the run-up to the war, had Twitter existed then. Others believe Blair and Bush could not have been swayed.
So when Channel 4 News online posed the question 'Would Twitter have made a difference in the build-up to the Iraq war?' this is how you responded.
62 per cent said no, it would not have made a difference. 38 per cent thought it would have had an impact. Here are some of your responses:
adilhasan10: No. We would still have our naive trust of the government and the most of the media would back up the justification for war.
djkobbie:"Errm YES!"
ajh400: "Tweets would not have stopped the war, but would have pricked the political consciousness. Maybe."
blakeconnolly: "Perhaps normal Iraqis tweeting, like that "Baghdad Blogger" might have added even more distaste for the war when it started."
bgeek: "Not in the slightest. oil + greed.+ warmongers. don't think the inquiry will even tell the truth."
JerryLundegaard: "Surely not. The govt ignored 500,000 people marching in the streets around Britain, why would they care about Twitter?"
Nico2lette: "Do you think Blair + Bush would listen to us mere mortals???"
NigelBarlow: "Would Twitter have made a difference in the build-up to the Iraq war? -Answer-of cause it would have done."
Meanwhile the Iraq inquiry Twitter blog itself has got many of you talking. Our blogger has sent a total of 643 tweets so far, and you've been responding in your droves.
rcengelsman:"Following @IraqInquiryBlog. Americans need to see this kind of information more. I've never been so angry with my own country's gov't."
symeonbrown:"I could sit & follow the @IraqInquiryBlog all day but I must get dressed..."
PeteKavanagh:"pre-empting #ff @IraqInquiryBlog is very enlightening and gives a real sense of the story unfolding. A must."
serennu:"The @IraqInquiryBlog is well worth a watch."
Britt_W:"@IraqInquiryBlog I love it, that I can lie on a sunroof terrace in Malta, following all that's said in the #iraninquiry - thx to you!"
The Iraq Inquiry Blogger will be back next week, when UK policy and military planning in the run-up to war will be up for discussion.
