In a blistering attack, Mr Keating said Mr Howard's "stubborn and unctuous denial of his responsibility in committing Australian troops to the assault on Iraq should be held in contempt by every thinking Australian".
"Howard has visited on Australia the whole spectre of terrorism, through his craven and ill-judged support of the United States and its invasion," Mr Keating said in a statement.
"Australian was perhaps the most successful multicultural society in the world, including the settlement of a large Muslim population.
"John Howard put the torch to that. Now we live perpetually with the spectre of terrorism and racial strife, visited upon us by his prejudices and lack of judgment."
Went to war 'on a lie'
Mr Keating launched his tirade after Mr Howard stood by his decision in 2003 following the damning findings of the Chilcot inquiry into Britain's support for the US-led invasion.
Former Labor leader Simon Crean, who was attacked at the time for opposing sending Australian troops, said Labor had been proven right to argue that the intelligence was shifty and question whether Saddam Hussein had the capacity to launch weapons of mass destruction against the West.
Speaking from Greece, Mr Crean told The Australian Financial Review the US and its allies should have enabled the UN weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix to do their job before rushing to war.
"I agree with Chilcot that the stance of the coalition of the willing did undermine the authority of the United Nations, and it's been proven that we did go to war on a lie," he said.
Mr Howard did not resile from his original decision to back US president George W. Bush, and rejected suggestions the war led to the proliferation of terrorist groups such as Islamic State and the ongoing conflict in the region.
Mr Howard said there was no need for another inquiry, and he believed at the time the intelligence was genuine.
"In the years that have gone by, there's been this constant claim that we went to war based on a lie. There was no lie. There were errors in intelligence, but there was no lie," he said.
He said intelligence was not an absolute science.
The Chilcot inquiry was damning of Britain's decision to back the US-led invasion, saying it was based on unchallenged and flawed intelligence, was launched before diplomatic options were exhausted, and that the risks were never considered.
It found then Iraqi dictator Hussein posed "no imminent threat".
In his statement, Mr Keating said Mr Howard backed Mr Bush, despite there being no linkage between the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and Saddam's regime.
"The singular cause to which John Howard committed Australia, by his own admission, was the presence of so-called weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein," Mr Keating said.
"There was never any evidence that such weapons existed and that fact was established following the exhaustive UN investigation led by Hans Blix."
Mr Keating said he and Bob Hawke sent forces to the 1991 Gulf War "because Saddam Hussein had invaded another country, Kuwait, and because the war against Iraq was to be conducted under a UN mandate".
"The objective of that mandate was to check the Hussein regime. It was not about regime change," he said.
"Could you imagine the woebetidings of Howard and the Liberal Party, had it been Hawke or I who had committed Australia to such an un-mandated assault on another country? We would never have heard the end of it. The Liberals would have been ringing their hands for decades."
Howard 'should atone'
Mr Keating said the incompetent management of Iraq following the invasion, fractured that country and with it, Syria and the region around it, casting millions adrift from their lives and homes.
"A sea of refugees. Yet Howard has no shame of it. And no responsibility," he said.
"During his prime ministership, his party was advertising that people should be aware of the risk of terrorism. And invited people to pin such official warnings on their fridges with magnets. We need more than magnets now.
"In the face of the Chilcot Report, John Howard should atone for his actions and those of his government. He should, at least, hang his head in shame."
The report led Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie – who resigned from his job as an intelligence official at the Office of National Assessments in protest over the 2003 decision – to renew his call for a proper inquiry into Australia's involvement, and to accuse Mr Howard of war crimes.
"We know this now more clearly than ever that the Howard government took us to war on a lie. Every time it's said that Iraq had a massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and it was co-operating with al-Qaeda, it knew that was not the case, that it was either clearly not the case or, at best, for them it was ambiguous," he said.
"They took us to war on a lie. No wonder John Howard and Tony Blair and George W. Bush do stand accused of war crimes. I'd like them to see an international court."
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