Baffled Europeans ask: How did we get there?

European countries that joined the United States in invading Iraq nearly seven years ago are striving to comprehend how they came to be embroiled in a war that has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

Craving for closure is strongest in Britain, where on Friday night NZT former Prime Minister Tony Blair will begin a full day of questioning at a public inquiry into the causes of the war.

More than 3000 members of the public, including 28 families of slain soldiers, have applied for the 80 available seats.

Blair's testimony is eagerly awaited. Did he embellish an intelligence report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to make it look that the threat was imminent? Was he pressured by President George W. Bush into going to war? What thought did he and Brown give to pacifying Iraq after a military victory?

So far, the Chilcot inquiry is trawling up useful pieces of information from ex-civil servants and former ministers, although many people are sceptical that the full truth will emerge and whether anyone will be punished.

The probe so far is "a blame game with one politician in the frame", the Independent said caustically.

Fears of a whitewash in Britain contrast starkly with the findings of an independent investigation in the Netherlands, which lashed the Government of the time, led by Jan Peter Balkende - still Premier today - for giving political support to the invasion.

The war was illegitimate under international law, was opposed by the Dutch public and in conflict with the Government's own policies, which were against regime change, said the 550-page report.

By giving political, but not military, support to the invasion, the Dutch Government "was to some extent disingenuous", it said. The US benefited from this backing, "since it increased support for the invasion at the global level".

Pressure is mounting for a similar house cleaning in Spain and Portugal, which contributed forces to the Iraq war in the teeth of fierce domestic opposition.

"It won't be possible to get the full picture of what happened until other people responsible for one of the most useless and ill-conceived conflicts in many decades explain what they did and why they did," the Spanish daily El Pais said last week.

Closing the wounds left by Iraq will be essential for maintaining support for the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan, where Nato is pounding the drum for more troops.

The war is "badly perceived in Europe", Alvaro de Vasconcelos, director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies, a Paris thinktank, told the New York Times. "[It is] contaminated by the Iraq war, the killing of civilians, the collateral damage, all of which has contributed to a widespread opposition to the Afghan war among Europeans."

Outside Britain, France and Germany are the two biggest contributors to the international force there and both are struggling to maintain public support for their involvement.

In Germany, the national consensus on military deployment in Afghanistan could be about to fall apart.

Leaders of the Social Democratic Party, previously in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel but now in opposition after losing in general elections in September, have started internal moves that herald a campaign demanding a pullout.

In her weekly blog, posted yesterday, Merkel said Germany would "focus our military mission principally on training security forces ... in a speedier and more concentrated manner than until now".

Other European countries are likely to follow the same line at a conference taking place in London on Friday on Afghanistan's military and economic needs. The emphasis will be on bolstering the role of Afghan troops and police, shouldering more of the security burden in order to lessen exposure to their forces - and accelerate the day when they leave.