“In the memo it states”, Blair continues to stand by you and the U.S.as we move forward on the war on terrorism and on Iraq”. “On Iraq, Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary”, the memo read as published on the Mail on Sunday.
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At the inquiry, Mr Blair said he “regretted deeply and profoundly the loss of life” during and after the 2003 conflict. ‘He is convinced on two points: “the threat is real; and success against Saddam will yield more regional success”.
The memo was a briefing note ahead of a 2002 summit between Bush and Blair at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas and was contained in a batch of emails on Hilary Clinton’s private server which USA courts told her to reveal. In one of the documents, Powel wrote Bush that Blair wanted to minimize “the political price” of joining the USA in its Iraqi campaign, adding that the PM’s voters “will look for signs that Britain and America are truly equity partners”.
In reference to the so-called war on terror, Mr Powell goes on to praise what he sees as Blair’s impressive public relations skills.
At that time Tony Blair’s public position was that Britain was seeking a diplomatic, rather than military solution, to the crisis.
He added that Blair would be willing to offer “strategic, tactical and public affairs lines” to strengthen public support for the invasion.
A sizeable number of his [Blair’s] MPs remain at present opposed to military action against Iraq … “There was a general discussion of the possibility of going down the military route, but obviously we were arguing very much for that to be if the United Nations route failed”, Blair said in 2010.
Five months after the meeting at the Crawford ranch, the British government published a dossier on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD), claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons and even had a nuclear weapons program.
Also, Chris Bambery, a UK-based journalist, writer and broadcaster, told Press TV that the revelation by the British media regarding Blair’s decision over the Iraq war is not a big surprise but is nonetheless a fresh proof that the former prime minister “was a liar”.
In public, Blair continued to insist throughout 2002 that he had taken no decision on whether to support the invasion that eventually began in March 2003. The result was a front-page lead story, published on 27 July 2002, reporting that the prime minister had committed to backing a war despite public statements in Britain to the contrary.
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Meanwhile, there are speculations that Chilcot might be asked to step down as chairman of the inquiry commission.
