导读:2003年，英美联军入侵伊拉克，震惊世人的伊拉克战争由此展开。现在伊拉克战争已经结束多年，但是其造成的后遗症令西方国家困扰不已，近日时任英国副首相的普雷斯科特承认说伊战非法。
John Prescott now believes the 2003 invasion into Iraq - carried out when he was Deputy PM to Tony Blair - was illegal, he admitted this morning.
英国前副首相约翰·普雷斯科特今天承认说，他认为2003年对伊拉克的入侵（当时他任英国副首相，托尼·布莱尔任首相）是非法的。
Lord Prescott made the admission in a newspaper column just days after Sir John Chilcot’s report into the lead-up to the war was published and savaged Blair.
普雷斯科特的陈述被发表在了一份报纸专栏里，而仅仅数天之前约翰·齐尔考特曾发表了一份对领导伊拉克战争国家的报告，猛烈抨击了布莱尔。
The Labour heavyweight used his strongest language yet to condemn Blair’s decision to take party in the Iraq War, a decision he supported at the time.
这位工党重量级人物用前所未有的激烈言辞猛烈抨击了布莱尔参加伊拉克战争的决定，而他本人当时也是支持这一决定的。
Prescott, now a member of the House of Lords, wrote in the Sunday Mirror: ’I will live with the decision of going to war and its catastrophic consequences for the rest of my life.
普雷斯科特现在是上议院议员，他在《星期日镜报》上写道：“参与伊拉克战争的这个决定和它造成的毁灭性结果都将折磨着我度过余生。”
’In 2004, the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said that as regime change was the prime aim of the Iraq war, it was illegal.
“2004年，时任联合国秘书长的科菲·安南说道，由于伊拉克战争的首要目的是为了实现该国的政权更替，因此它是非法的。”
’With great sadness and anger, I now believe him to be right.’
“带着巨大的悲伤和愤怒，我现在相信他是对的。”
On Wednesday, the Chilcot report returned a damning verdict on Britain’s role in the US-led war, finding it joined the conflict before all peaceful options had been exhausted and that judgements about Iraq’s capacities were ’presented with a certainty that was not justified’.
本周三，齐尔考特的报告给英国在这场由美国领导的战争中所扮演的角色作出了猛烈的抨击，明明还有其他更加和平的选择，但是英国却加入了对伊拉克的战争，而且对伊拉克能力的判断“肯定不合理”。
It also disclosed Blair had written to then US president George W. Bush that ’I will be with you, whatever’ eight months before the invasion.
这份报告还透露说，布莱尔曾在入侵伊拉克8个月前写信给美国总统乔治·布什说“不管什么事儿，我都会跟随着你”。
Lord Prescott said the timing of the decision "was clearly designed to endorse an almost immediate action for us to go to war".
普雷斯科特表示说这一决定“很显然是为了批准让我们立即行动，加入战争”。
He said that Mr Blair was determined to be a "special friend" to the US and president George W Bush.
普雷斯科特表示说布莱尔铁了心要当美国和总统乔治·布什的“特殊朋友”。
Referring to a previously secret memo disclosed in the Chilcot files, Lord Prescott said: "Tony’s note to Bush with that devastating quote ’I am with you, whatever’ was all the Americans needed to go in, without UN support."
普雷斯科特提到了之前齐尔考特报告中披露的一份秘密备忘录，他说道：“布莱尔写给布什的那份毁灭性信件‘不管什么事儿，我都会跟随着你’使得美国人凑齐了开战的一切必备条件，即使没有联合国的支持。”
Mr Blair has defended the decision to oust Saddam and insisted that his efforts to form a close relationship with the US had persuaded Mr Bush to pursue a second UN security council resolution, which ultimately was not obtained.
布莱尔为驱逐萨达姆的决定做了辩护，他坚持认为和美国形成密切关系的努力说服了布什组成第二个联合国安理会的决心，尽管这一想法最终未能实现。
Some 150,000 Iraqi people were killed in the six years after British and American troops invaded, plunging the country into chaos and creating fertile ground for jihadist groups like the Islamic State.
在英美联军入侵伊拉克后，六年里共有15万伊拉克人因此而死亡，使得整个国家陷入了混乱，给IS一类的伊斯兰圣战组织创造了诞生的沃土。
A total of 179 British troops also died.
在这场战争中，共有179名英国军人因此而丧失。
