Let Chilcot be guide for Australia: Leahy

A former Australian chief of army believes a seven-year inquiry into the Iraq war should act as a guide for Australia's future.

Responding to the 2.6 million-word Chilcot report, Peter Leahy - who oversaw the army from 2002-2008 - says Australia needs to be careful of "blindly" going along with its international partners.

"Frankly, some of the decisions the United States, our senior partner in our strategic alliance, have made over the last 20 or 30 years have been a bit crook," he told ABC TV.

"I think it does give us this really important guide to the future, that we need to be able to take independent, sovereign decisions based on our own national interests and what the strategies might be."

Professor Leahy said Australia had very little say in what happened in 2004 and 2005 and many decisions made then led to much of the chaos nowadays.

He doesn't believe there needs to be a similar review in Australia.

"Let's have a discussion not an inquiry around our relationship with the United States, how we decide to go to war and very importantly how we decide everyday when we are at war, to stay at war."