Blair Fights For His Legacy As He Defends Iraq War
By
Gregory Katz
HE WAS RIGHT and he'd do it again.
That was Tony Blair's message last
month as he fought for his place in history against critics who
contend it was folly to join the Americans in invading Iraq based on
intelligence that was faulty and weapons of mass destruction that
turned out not to exist.
The highly anticipated testimony before an
official inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq conflict provided
both a reprise and a coda to the Blair years: The former prime
minister showed his impressive rhetorical skills and high-minded
principles, but left unanswered whether the war that defines his
mixed legacy was justified.
Many in the audience, including the
relatives of soldiers and civilians killed in the war, were not
impressed. Blair's claim to have no regrets drew an angry outburst.
As he left, one man stood up and shouted "You are a liar!" A second
added: "And a murderer."
The six-hour session capped a wide-ranging
inquiry that since November has heard extensive evidence from
government lawyers and ministers who raised doubts about the
legality and wisdom of the 2003 Iraq invasion, which was extremely
unpopular in Britain.
The Iraq Inquiry panel plans to issue a
report next year, but does not have a mandate to apportion blame or
the power to bring any criminal charges.
Many Britons blamed Blair for blindly
following the Americans - he was dubbed "Bush's poodle" and accused
of making a backroom deal with the US president.
But while Blair showed signs of nerves
during testimony - even nibbling on the wings of his spectacles at
one point - he was unrepentant as he defended the decision to topple
Saddam Hussein and warned that today's leaders face similar tough
choices as they confront Iran over its nuclear program.
"The decision I took - and frankly would
take again - was, if there was any possibility that he could develop
weapons of mass destruction, we would stop him," Blair said. "It was
my view then and that is my view now."
CONSPIRACY
"This isn't about a lie, or a conspiracy, or
a deceit, or a deception," Blair said. "It's a decision. And the
decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of
chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he
had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take
the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons program?"
Blair said the September 11 attacks changed
everything, showing that religious fanatics were determined to
inflict mass casualties. That made it too dangerous to leave Saddam
in power, he said, because Saddam's Iraq - or other rogue states,
like North Korea or Iran - could form links to terror groups and
attack the West.
Blair conceded there were no known ties
between Saddam and the al-Qaida architects of the 9/11 atrocities,
but said he feared such links could have developed if Saddam and his
sons remained in power.
Blair also insisted the US-led invasion
would have been called off had Saddam changed course and proved to
UN inspectors that he had destroyed his arsenal.
That was met with a rebuff by one panel
member, renowned historian Sir Lawrence Freedman, who pointed out in
acid tones that it would have been difficult for Saddam to prove he
had dismantled weapons he didn't have in the first place.
Blair did acknowledge postwar planning was
flawed. He said his government did not anticipate the role al-Qaida
and Iran would play in destabilizing Iraq after the fall of Saddam.
The government had planned for a humanitarian crisis but did not
foresee the sectarian violence that followed the invasion, he said.
The mood in the hearing room was strained.
The audience included many with family killed in Iraq, and their
presence added a sobering dose of reality to the legalistic jousting
between Blair and the distinguished panel, which included knights
and a baroness.
REVULSION
Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon
was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she felt revulsion at Blair's
presence.
"Actually, I felt sick," she said. "He
seemed to be shaking as well, which I am pleased about - the eyes of
all the families were on him."
It was more raucous outside the Queen
Elizabeth II Conference Center, where some 150 protesters shouted
slogans including "Jail Tony" and "Blair lied - thousands died,"
while rows of police kept them away from the building.
It was an uncomfortable return to the
limelight for the once popular Blair, who swept to power with a
landslide victory in 1997 but saw his strong bond with the British
public disintegrate after the Iraq invasion.
The bouncy step, easy smile and "Call me
Tony" bonhomie of Blair's early years was gone, replaced by a stern,
lawyerly figure who found himself interrupted and contradicted by
his skeptical inquisitors.
He seemed defensive and sometimes
exasperated; he is not a man accustomed to being interrupted, as
happened frequently when he started to elaborate and digress. He
showed signs of aging - a spreading bald spot, fine lines around his
gray-blue eyes - but otherwise looked tanned and fit.
At times, Saddam seemed to hover over the
proceedings - hanged for his crimes in 2006 but still vilified by
Blair as evil incarnate.
ABSENT
The other absent figure whose presence was
strongly felt was former President George W Bush, who early on
enlisted Blair's support for the Iraq invasion.
Drinking Malvern spring water throughout the
lengthy hearing, Blair denied falsifying intelligence to boost the
case for military action or making an early commitment to Bush to
use force against Saddam more than a year before Britain's
Parliament approved military action.
He also said he did not pressure his
attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, to change his view and assert
that the invasion would be legal under international law.
Blair also insisted the existing UN
resolution offered sufficient authority for the invasion.
Mark Wickham-Jones, a professor of political
science at the University of Bristol, said Blair's testimony would
not change the view among Britons that the war had been a disaster
that was Blair's responsibility.
"Iraq is the millstone around his neck,"
Wickham-Jones said. "His legacy is Iraq, and the inquiry didn't do
him any favors." |
