"The truth, always the truth--at all costs"
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| 8484 01/31/2010 Tony Blair says about Iraq : ‘I’d do it again’ Philip Webster, David Brown |
| http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7009090.ece?print=yes&randnum=1264874624624 [The Times (London)] From The Times January 30, 2010 Unrepentant, unforgiven, Blair says: ‘I’d do it again’ Philip Webster and David Brown Tony Blair was branded a murderer and liar last night after he ended his historic appearance before the Iraq inquiry with a blank refusal to voice regrets over toppling Saddam Hussein. After six hours in which the Chilcot inquiry team had largely failed to breach his defences, the former Prime Minister brought trouble on himself by failing to show the contrition that his critics wanted. Mr Blair, who gave a fluent, assured performance, refused to apologise for going to war, said that he would do the same again, and then warned that today’s leaders might have to take similar action to disarm Iran. He went as far as telling the inquiry that it should pose the “2010 question” and ask what would have happened if America and Britain had lost their nerve and allowed Saddam to go on and build nuclear weapons. Last night declassified documents released by Downing Street revealed that Mr Blair had already indicated Britain’s support for regime change in Iraq six months before the 9/11 attacks. The memo is from Sir John Sawers, foreign policy adviser to Mr Blair at the time and now head of MI6, to a senior diplomat. Dated March 7, 2001, it said that Britain would support the US in toppling Saddam “when the circumstances were right”. The Iraq inquiry audience stayed silent through most of yesterday’s testimony but cracked when Sir John Chilcot, the chairman, offered Mr Blair two chances to voice regret. To the first he replied: “Responsibility but not a regret for removing Saddam Hussein. I think he was a monster. I think he threatened not just a region but the world.” There was a cry of “What, no regrets?”; then shouts of “You are a murderer”, “and a liar”. There were also sobs from relatives of some of the 179 British service personnel killed in the conflict. Mr Blair said: “It was divisive and I’m sorry about that but I tried my level best to bring people back together again.” Earlier the former Prime Minister said that many of the arguments used to justify overthrowing Saddam’s regime now applied to Iran. He said that Iran was now a greater risk to Britain than Iraq was at the time that he ordered the invasion in March 2003. His voice apparently beginning to fade, he insisted that Britain — and in particular the Armed Forces — should feel an “immense sense of pride” for the role that had been played. “I had to take this decision as Prime Minister. It was a huge responsibility and there is not a single day that passes by that I don’t reflect and think about that responsibility, and so I should,” Mr Blair said. “But I genuinely believe that if we had left Saddam in power, even with what we know now, we would still have had to have dealt with him, possibly in circumstances where the threat was worse.” |
