Tony Blair 'deceived himself' to justify Britain's invasion of Iraq

"[Robin Cook] did think that that Tony Blair and some other colleagues had gone through a process of self deception."

Tony Blair wanted to ally the UK with the US, and sought to 'justify it afterwards,' says David Clark, former special advisor to Robin Cook.

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[BritanniaMotorcycles]

I am 72 and have heard of the "special relationship" all of my life. However I have never seen it. I have seen the UK doing America's bidding at the drop of a hat, but as Barack Obama said when the UK made its own decision about the EU, right or wrong, "you can go to the back of the line".

[bunbwre]

He should be in jail and yet he is a knight.

[appletree]

Iraq war is one of the reasons it was so hard to unify the world against Putin. We’re condemning the Ukraine invasion (as we should) but we haven’t condemned the Iraq invasion (as we should too). It smells like double standards to non westerners

[appletree]

Iraq is where US and UK lost their credibility on questions of international law

[Red__Law]

The consequences of the Iraq War have been massively downplayed by Western media over the past two decades. Not just the obvious carnage done to the middle east, but the damage done to the reputation of the US/UK and the repercussions to how their citizens view the political class, leading to outcomes such as Brexit and Trump.

[waterboys]

I was living in the US at the time. I attended dinners where the British ambassador, Sir David Manning, told Americans that Britain wanted to be America's partner of choice. Bush planned to invade seven Muslim countries in five years. After the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions went pear-shaped he gave up. The Bush team wanted the US to be the world's policeman and take out leaders it disapproved of. That was what Blair was signing up for. I now have US citizenship and Americans now believe that the war was a mistake and Bush is a pariah. Blair was a dangerous narcissist. He wanted to be at the centre of attention but he and his team were out of their depth. They did not understand US politics or the Middle East.

[enter]

The Intelligence was not "tested" at all.

[TheGavinh]

How Blair didn't end up behind bars is a disgrace

[SimonWallwork]

Even if Saddam had WMD, he had no way of delivering them- we knew that for sure. Was he going to mail us his so-called WMD?

[sumbitspicy]

What makes me laugh is media kept on wheeling both Blair and Campbell during the pandemic, to.listen to their take. Why?

[lorifitzgerald]

Blair, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld should have stood trial in the Hague as well. The hypocrisy is maddening.

[sumbitspicy]

He should take his vast wealth and donate every last penny to the people of Iraq.

[nigelalanwood]

Alistair Campbell and Blair should have received the same justice as rommel did from the Italians.

[-rppg]

Why Blair and not Major ? He also sent our forces to Iraq were human shields were used

[jz]

In Parliament Tony Blair made the point that 'even if we don't act now we will have to in the future', or words to that effect. At the time I did not think that sounded like a Prime Minister faced with the threat of the infamous 45-minute claim.
I did not believe he was being consistent with the level of threat.

Second point & an important point, it was stated in Parliament that if we did not get a second resolution we would not go to war, Tony Bliar confident at the time that a second resolution was possible. The point being, was Tony Blair answerable to Parliament?

Remember at the time it was stated it was not in the national strategic interest to oppose the war.

With the benifit of hindsight perhaps people can now see why it was imperative to accurately access, considering the commitment towards Afghanistan & the redeveloping of 'dooms day' weapons by Russia post Soviet Union & that by far the larger conceivable threat, even at the time.

[dollyjeanstevens]

And to think some say Putin will face trial and we cannot even get Blair before the court of law, lol!

[walterstevens]

The decision to go to war was one thing. Another was the assessment of the UK"s military capabilities and what role they could play.

[charlessmyth]

When neither the Brits nor the Yanks have control of their own countries, foreign adventures of interventions look doomed to failure :-)

[harveydean]

It's great that Blair's role in the illegal invasion of Iraq hasn't been forgotten but equally I'd also be keen to see greater public demand for closer scrutiny into the events of 9/11 that initially served as the justification for the War On Terror. For the past decade or so thousands of relatives of 9/11 victims have been in the process of suing the Saudi State for their alleged complicity in the attrocity. To my mind that should be one of the biggest news stories of recent times yet it remains absent from almost all media coverage.

[retromograph]

America's part in the Iraq invasion can be somewhat explained (although not justified) as a collective moment of madness and lashing out after the trauma of 9/11. For Blair and his henchmen, no such explanation exists. How these people have not been cancelled is beyond me.