Former prime minister John Howard has stood by his decision to send Australian troops to the Iraq War after a United Kingdom inquiry into the invasion found intelligence was flawed.
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But he added: “We have however concluded that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for military action were far from satisfactory”.
In a lengthy press conference in London, Mr Blair said he would never agree that those who died and were injured in Iraq “made their sacrifice in vain”.
“I believe I made the right decision and that the world is better and safer as a result of it”, he said. “I profoundly disagree”, said Blair. “There were errors in intelligence but there was no lie”, Mr Howard said. Chilcot said Goldsmith’s reasoning was not properly examined at the time by the government.
Mr Blair told interviewer John Humphrys people would not accept that he meant his regret over mistakes in the Iraq War until he disowned the decision to join the USA coalition to topple Saddam Hussein.
“Military action in Iraq might have been necessary at some point”.
The report by an independent probe panel led by retired government official John Chilcot found that Blair relied on flawed intelligence and that the way the war was legally authorized was unsatisfactory.
According to the document, it was also Blair’s idea to link the Afghanistan and Iraq military interventions as part of a wider campaign to prevent terrorism, “although there was no evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda”.
Yesterday, the report revealed Mr Blair had written to former US President George Bush eight months before the joint invasion, telling him: “I will be with you whatever”.
‘I don’t believe, based on the information available to me, that it was the wrong decision.
The decision make a formal apology is likely to prove highly controversial and may worsen Corbyn’s relationship with some backbenchers after he was heavily defeated in a vote of confidence last week.
“I can’t put myself in Tony Blair’s mind”.
His voice sometimes close to cracking, his expression strained and grim, Tony Blair made an impassioned and lengthy defense of the Iraq war on Wednesday, a conflict that still scars many Britons.
The main opposition Labour Party, which was in power under former Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2003, said it stood by its decision not to send troops to help overthrow Saddam Hussein, Xinhua news agency reported.
They include family members of soldiers who were killed in action during the war, and citizens who blame former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his role during the war.
Sir Jeremy said he felt Mr Blair had wanted to wait longer before taking military action.
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“The US was going to war, with us or without us”, he told reporters during two-hour defence of his conduct.
