The long-awaited British inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq revealed on Wednesday that Britain's decision to join the US-led war was a blind action to follow its US ally, a nation which spares no efforts to intervene in other countries under the cover of spreading democracy.

Some Western countries, in particular the US, have always tried to force their values on other countries without any respect for their own development paths.

To protect their interests and maintain their dominance of the world, they can easily wage a war by fabricating excuses in defiance of the authority of the UN.

The Iraq War Inquiry report reveals that  in March 2003 there was "no imminent threat" from Saddam Hussein, who the US claimed possessed weapons of mass destruction that have not been found to this day.

Britain's military role in Iraq went "badly wrong" and "ended a long way from success," the report said, adding that Britain went to war before all peaceful options had been exhausted.

In fact, the US regards military force as a permissible way of toppling regimes that are not submissive, even at the cost of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and a country's destiny.

The report also pointed out that "the planning and preparation for Iraq after Saddam were wholly inadequate."

That reminded people of US President Barack Obama's reply when he was asked in a Fox News interview to name the "worst mistake" of his presidency - "probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya."

Though the then British prime minister Tony Blair and current Prime Minister David Cameron have defended military intervention and planning for the aftermath of the intervention, the two British leaders and Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama know better when it comes to the consequences of war and the preciousness of peace.

Looking around, the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups such as the Islamic State group should be blamed on the hegemonism and interventionism perpetrated by the US and its Western allies.

The article is a commentary from the Xinhua News Agency. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn