In his first media interview since the release of a damning report into the run-up to the Iraq invasion and its aftermath, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iraq was better off because of the war.
“I don’t think this struggle was in vain in the end,” Blair said in an interview on BBC Radio 4. “I sincerely believe that we would be in a worse position if we hadn’t acted in that way.”
The report into the war, the result of a seven-year investigation by former civil servant Sir John Chilcot, found Blair committed to the invasion almost eight months before he had the parliamentary and legal backing, before diplomatic alternatives were exhausted, and on the basis of flawed intelligence.
Asked why he had sent a memo to U.S. President George W. Bush in July 2002 stating “I will be with you, whatever,” Blair said he wanted to reassure his American counterpart that the U.K. supported the U.S.
“I wanted to make sure America did not feel alone,” Blair said. “I did want the U.K. to be their partner of choice, to be the first telephone call they made.”
Blair acknowledged he should have done things differently and said he regretted the loss of life, but said the outcome would have been worse had he not acted.
“I agree completely that when you go back over it, for example on the intelligence, yes in retrospect it would have been better to have challenged it,” Blair said, but added: “I would argue very strongly that whatever the processes, it was the right thing to do.”
“It’s not simply because of the hundreds of thousands of people that were victims of Saddam before he was deposed. If he’d been left in power, he would have gone back to his programs again.”