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THREE-TIME BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the US-led invasion of Iraq was partly responsible for the emergence of the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East.
Despite this, he’s insisted that toppling dictator Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.
Blair told CNN that “there are elements of truth” in the assertion that the war caused the rise of IS.
“Of course you can’t say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015,” he said in the interview to be broadcast today.
He added that the Arab Spring had also played a role in creating instability that allowed the Islamic fundamentalist militant group to flourish.
Blair’s decision to take Britain into the Iraq war — based on what turned out to be false claims about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction — remains hugely divisive, and contributed to his Labour Party’s loss of power in 2010.
CNN Breaking News / TwitterEx-British PM Tony Blair tells @FareedZakaria he’s sorry for mistakes made in invading Iraq.https://t.co/4gC5c1jkfE pic.twitter.com/4fbrCjZeFA
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) October 25, 2015
Blair said he did not believe the world would be a better place if Saddam were still in power. But he apologised, as he has before, for failures in post-war planning.
“I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” he said in clips released by CNN before the broadcast.“I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.”
Some 179 British personnel died in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. The Chilcot public enquiry into decisions and mistakes in Britain’s planning and execution of the war began in 2009 but has yet to issue its findings. The process has been held up while people criticised in the report are given a chance to respond.
Critics of the war hope the inquiry will conclude that Blair was determined to back President George W. Bush in his invasion plans, whether or not it was supported by the public, Parliament or legal opinion.
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What an awful situation in a truly failed country.
Have you been there?
No different to the appalling atrocities that are carried out in Syria under our noses by Western backed “moderate” rebels.
Frank, can you not just say that it’s bad?
Or should I refer to you as abbilitive?
Declan Noonan both are bad but I must admit that the one that I mentioned is far more appalling than the other because it has been carried out in the name of democracy by a so called civilized nation.
Nobody has to go there to know what it’s like! Yes of course there are good parts like anywhere else. Slowly the cartels will take over them too! It’s people like you that know nothing about Mexico and it’s horrific violence.
Go google Mexican drug cartel images and come back here!! The tourist areas are safe the rest isn’t! When the cops are part of the problem what hope do they have prey tell.
I would not go to Mexico, even as a corpse….
Outside of the gated areas, it’s a cesspit of a country.
Probably not,but he is able to read
Humanity at its most depraved
Mexico is mental.
Homicide rate is something like 1 in 5000. In ireland that would be close to 1000 people a year.
Tragic. Young innocent aspiring students lives savagely taken away by sick, evil creatures
That’s what’s truly scary. Those were just students. The majority of killings are drug related. This wasn’t. Very strange for Mexico. Nothing shocks me over there but that really does. These new bodies will be drug related. The note says it all. The poor students were really shocking and very sad. The rest,they just kill each other over drugs and areas. Nothing new really.
We must keep these people out of Europe. All non EU immigration must be severely curtailed.
There is no z in organised. Petty and off topic i know but im not sure whats worse journalists who cant proof read or journalists who turn the country location to ireland.
have your say