Tony Blair: ‘I wanted war – it was the right thing to do’

[cal04]

Philip Webster
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/the_blair_years/article2886547.ece

Tony Blair has admitted for the first time that he ignored the pleas of his aides and ministers to deter President Bush from waging war on Iraq because he believed that America was doing the right thing. And he has acknowledged that he turned down a last-ditch offer from Mr Bush to pull Britain out of the conflict.

He has also revealed that he wishes he had published the full reports from the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) instead of the infamous September dossier about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction that so damaged him, and was almost certainly one of the factors that contributed to him leaving office sooner than he wanted.

In frank remarks in a BBC documentary, Mr Blair confirmed openly the belief of many of his closest supporters that he never used his position as America’s strongest ally to try to force Mr Bush down the diplomatic rather than the military route.

It was never a “bargaining chip” for him and he was never looking for a way out, he told David Aaronovitch, of The Times, in interviews for The Blair Years. “It was what I believed in, and I still do believe it,” he said.

[AX10]

1. Vote LibDem. Labour is shit! They let this SOB stay in power...

dispite all of this! :argh:

[peacebird]

2. true believers are always the most dangerous.... especially when they WANT to believe as he did

Since he was predisposed to wanting to believe in the war, it made it easier to justify in his mind.

frightening.

[Fresh_Start]

3. Thanks for making it easier on the war crimes tribunal

saying there was no attempt for diplomacy ought to save a lot of time

[blm]

4. He did listen to the only advisor that mattered to him - Bill Clinton

The same advisor who urged Democrats in congress to support Bush on terrorism and Iraq war and be Blair Democrats.

[Cha]

5. No, toady, it was not the "right thing to do"..

unless you're talking about the insane rightwing where the bushites live.

toady can go to his grave defending his lies and sychophancy to the bushites but his epitaph will read.. "HERE LIES TOADY BLUR, ENGLISH LAP POODLE TO THE CRIMINALLY INSANE bushites"

I imagine they will be more than a few loved ones of English Soldiers killed Iraq under toady's orders that will piss on it.

[MasonJar]

6. He had no influence and to have tried to use such a course would have

exposed his lack of power over Bu$h and C"hate"y hegemony. As it is, he just set himself up as a centerpiece for crimes against humanity at the Hague. I read tonight that the British were using torture in Bazra and that one prisoner died of the treatment, having 93 different (criminally inflicted) injuries. Blair had a chance to go down as a winner in the history books, but he is going to be just another pawn in the Iraq War debacle.

[Voltaire99]

7. War criminal. To the Hague.

Give him Hussein's old cell; give him Hussein's noose.

[Briar]

8. So Christian Tony

wanted war. Says all I need to know about Christianity and its claims to guarantee our morals.