He said the military was fully prepared for the campaign to remove Saddam, but that the terrorist insurgency that followed was “tough”.
Advertisement
Mr Corbyn did not, however, call for Mr Blair to be tried for war crimes, as some had suspected he might.
Mr Blair yesterday refused to accept accusations from the families of veterans that he had been wrong or reckless in sending British troops to Iraq.
“People want me to go one step further – and this is my problem, I know it causes a lot of difficulty – they say “no, we want you to apologise for the decision” and I can’t do that”. “They were not challenged as they should have been”. The report criticized the way Blair presented intelligence information to the public, citing “the deliberate selection of a formulation which grounded the statement in what Mr Blair believed”. The claim was crucial in persuading a majority of British lawmakers to endorse the country’s participation in toppling Saddam Hussein.
Newspaper front pages were scathing, with The Times describing it as “Blair’s private war” and the Daily Mail calling the former prime minister: “A monster of delusion”.
Commenting on words exchanged between Blair and Bush at Camp David, US later that year, the Chilcot report adds: “Although at that stage no decision had been taken on which military package might be offered to the US for planning purposes, Mr. Blair also told President Bush that, if it came to war, the United Kingdom would take a significant military role”. I understand that. But I don’t think this struggle was in vain in the end.
He added: “There may be people who believe that until I say I took the wrong decision, I am not properly sorry. It always bothered me but I believed that the decision to go into Iraq was justified at the time and I don’t resile from that”. “I can’t be in charge of the actual equipment that is needed”, he said.
Humphrys suggested some people thought Mr Blair was deluded. “There were no lies, there was no deceit, there was no deception”, the former prime minister told reporters, looking gaunt and strained but growing animated as he responded to questions.
Meanwhile Mr Blair said the decision was “the most agonising and momentous” of his career, and that he would “carry it with me for the rest of my days”.
The spokesman said all options were being considered, including asking those responsible for the failures identified in the report to “answer for their actions in the courts if such process is found to be viable”.
Advertisement
“It is important that the lessons are learned and that such mistakes aren’t repeated – and that weighed heavily on my mind when I voted against air strikes in Syria past year”. The threat in reality, Chilcot said, was not imminent at all – and Blair also reportedly ignored warnings that Iraq would be thrown into civil war after the invasion happened.
