London, England (CNN) -- Hans Blix, the former chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, was testifying Tuesday before Britain's inquiry into the Iraq war.
Blix, the Swedish diplomat who led the effort to find Iraq's suspected nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs before the 2003 invasion, has criticized the United States and Britain for launching the war in the absence of evidence.
The United States had discounted Blix's reports that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and insisted those programs were simply being concealed. After the invasion, Iraq was found to have dismantled its weapons programs years before.
"I think the U.S. at the time was high on military," Blix told the inquiry. "They felt that they could get away with it (an invasion), and therefore it was decided they would do so".
CNN
