Britain’s Blair steadfast on decision to support Iraq war in new memoir

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair spends more than
100 pages of his newly released memoir defending the war in Iraq.

Blair, who was criticized for his decision to stand by
President George W. Bush and send British troops to the region, covers the
topic throughout three chapters of his book, A Journey: My Political Life.

The tome went on sale in the United States on Thursday, two
days after President Obama announced the United States had “turned a page” in Iraq
and officially ended the U.S. combat mission there.

Blair writes about the Iraq war as a politician, noting he
can see both sides of the argument over the conflict, but said his task is “not
to persuade the reader of the rightness of the cause, but merely to persuade
that such a cause can be made out.”

The former British prime minister writes that he doesn’t
regret his decision to support the war, but concedes he never guessed at the “nightmare
that unfolded” after the invasion.  

In discussing the buildup to the war, Blair reminds the
reader of the fear felt throughout the world after the Sept. 11
attacks.

He says he doesn’t know why the intelligence on Saddam
Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction was wrong, but maintains Saddam may have
been able to develop such weapons in the future if action had not been taken
against him.

“I still believe that leaving Saddam in power was a bigger
risk to our security than removing him, and that terrible though the aftermath
was, the reality of Saddam and his sons in charge of Iraq would at least
arguably be much worse,” he writes.

Blair dismisses speculation that Iraq’s oil had a role in the
decision to go to war, stating that “if oil had been our concern, we would
have cut a deal with Saddam in a heartbeat.”

He defends Bush at several points in the memoir and gives
the former president credit for the 2007 troop surge in Iraq — something Obama
didn’t do in his Oval Office address.

In discussing the backroom decisionmaking over the war,
Blair hints at then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s stubbornness without making any direct
charges against him.

“Dick is the object of so much conspiracy theory that it’s
virtually impossible to have a rational discussion on him,” Blair writes. “My
take on him was different from that of most people. I thought he had one
central insight which was at least worth taking seriously. He believed, in
essence, that the U.S. was genuinely at war; that the war was one with
terrorists and rogue states that supported them. … In other words, he thought
the world had to be made anew. … He was for hard, hard power. No ifs, no buts,
no maybes.”

The memoir came out in the United Kingdom on Wednesday.
Early reports about the book in the British press focused on the Iraq decision,
Blair’s criticism of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his thoughts on
Princess Diana and her death, and his relationship with the queen.

While a great deal of the book focuses on British issues,
Blair has kind words for every American president he worked with.

He called Bill Clinton a “formidable politician,” noted Bush
had “great intuition” and said Obama is “a man with steel in every part of
him.”

Blair noted that the three men, though different, had one key
thing in common: They were “prepared to put what you perceive to be the common
good of the nation before your own political self.”

He only discusses the Monica Lewinsky scandal for a few pages,
but credits Clinton with being “preternaturally cool under fire” during the
controversy.

Blair offers some armchair psychology on Clinton,
speculating that his behavior with Lewinsky “arose in part from his inordinate
interest in and curiosity about people. In respect of men, it was expressed in
friendship; in respect of women, there was potentially a sexual element. And in
that, I doubt he is much different from most of the male population.”

Blair was at the White House in February 1998 when tapes
from the grand jury investigation into the Lewinsky scandal leaked. He and
Clinton were scheduled to speak to the press, and both knew what most of the
questions would be about.

Before they went out to talk to the press corps, Blair says the
two leaders were subject to Rahm Emanuel’s famous foul language.

Emanuel, who was then a White House adviser, told the two of
them: “Don’t f–k it up.”

Blair also offers his insight into Bill and Hillary
Clinton’s relationship: “I think they loved each other. That’s the real
revelation. Yes, it’s a political partnership; yes it’s buttressed by mutual
ambition, but when all is said is done, the ambition is the awning under which
true love shelters, not love which gives shelter to the ambition.”

Blair left office in June 2007, after serving for 10 years
as the British leader. He is now a Middle East envoy. He was in Washington on
Wednesday to discuss the Middle East peace process and have dinner at the White
House.