(Reuters) Prime Minister David Cameron's plans for an imminent military strike on Syria were in disarray on Thursday after a revolt by lawmakers warning him to heed the "lessons of Iraq".
After imploring the world not to stand idly by over Syria's suspected use of chemical weapons, Cameron was forced into an awkward climbdown on Wednesday when the opposition Labour party and lawmakers in his own party said they wanted more evidence before voting for military action.
On Thursday, Cameron's government published legal advice it had been given which it said showed it was legally entitled to take military action against Syria even if the United Nations Security Council blocked such action.
It also published intelligence material on last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria, saying there was no doubt that such an attack had taken place and that it was "highly likely" that the Syrian government had been behind the apparent poison gas attack that had killed hundreds.
Dogging Cameron's steps is the memory of events a decade ago, when Britain helped the United States to invade Iraq after asserting - wrongly, as it later turned out - that President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Britain, already embroiled in Afghanistan, was sucked into a second quagmire and lost 179 troops in eight years of war after Iraq descended into savage sectarian conflict.
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