In response to the investigation report, Blair said he believed that Britain should have stood by the US, an important ally, when it needed it, and claimed the world is a better place without Saddam. Bush, too, has said, through his spokesperson, that Blair was a reliable ally and a world without Saddam is a better place, although he has not read the report. This shows the extent to which the Bush-Blair friendship, as opposed to prudent thinking of political organizations, was decisive in launching the Iraq war.

On May 1, 2003, Bush announced "Mission Accomplished" on the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier off the coast of California, saying the war has left an "independent" and "stable" Iraq. His mission obviously didn't include the Iraqi children deformed by US bombs, the more than half a million Iraqis killed, the looting and ransacking of Iraq's museums housing artifacts of one of the oldest civilizations, or the frequent bomb attacks and sectarian violence in Iraq.

Is Iraq or the world a better place without Saddam? Neither Blair nor Bush can answer that. But the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families affected by the war, the 179 British and about 5,000 US families who lost their loved ones in the military action in Iraq, and the residents in cities such as Paris, Nice, London, Madrid and Brussels might be able to answer that question.

The invasion of the sovereign state of Iraq without the United Nations' authorization set a very bad example. The war has not fulfilled even a single purpose, let alone the goal of containing terrorism. Instead, it has made Iraq a fertile breeding ground for extreme terrorists. And the frontline of the US' "war on terror" has gradually retreated from the Middle East to Western Europe. Is this a better world?

Al-Qaida and later Islamic State terrorist group exploited the power vacuum left by Saddam's death, which the US and its allies cannot manage. The Iraq war opened the Pandora's box of terrorism. And the British report's obvious restraint, Blair's adamant defense and US presidential nominees' mania to "make America great again" are enough reasons for the world to ask how many Pandora's boxes Western leaders will open elsewhere and claim "Mission Accomplished"?

The author is a writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn