Tony Blair has said he would have invaded Iraq even without evidence of weapons of mass destruction and would have found a way to justify the war to parliament and the public.
The former prime minister made the confession during an interview with Fern Britton, to be broadcast on Sunday on BBC1, in which he said he would still have thought it right to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
“If you had known then that there were no WMDs, would you still have gone on?” Blair was asked. He replied: “I would still have thought it right to remove him [Saddam Hussein]“.
Significantly, Blair added: “I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat.” He continued: “I can’t really think we’d be better with him and his two sons in charge, but it’s incredibly difficult. That’s why I sympathise with the people who were against it [the war] for perfectly good reasons and are against it now, but for me, in the end I had to take the decision.”
Source/Full Story: The Guardian
Related Items
- June 30, 2009 — Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq (1)
A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to wa… - November 19, 2009 — Leaders meet to elect EU president (0)
Experts have said the president should be a technocrat who can provide unity and build consensus among the EU’s main institutions – the council of nat… - November 5, 2009 — Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to be ‘raped with broken bottles’ (0)
The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with brok… - October 27, 2009 — UK: How police rebranded lawful protest as ‘domestic extremism’ (0)
Under the heading of “not much a fight, more like a festival”, the Guardian reported that the predicted battle between the police and activists wantin… - October 23, 2009 — Judge Tosses Lawsuits Against Blackwater, Now Xe (0)
A federal judge on Wednesday tossed out a series of lawsuits filed by alleged Iraqi victims of the contractor once known as Blackwater USA, but is all…
