FORMER British prime minister Tony Blair pressed ahead with the invasion of Iraq without betraying any uncertainty even to his closest colleagues, all of whom had "severe moments of doubt", his former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, has revealed.Like Bush, Blair's legacy is going to be the War and Occupation of Iraq. On this side of the pond it seems reasonably clear by now that Bush, feeling not up to the job of President and horribly shocked and frightened by the 9/11 attacks (of which he had been warned and then advised not to do anything about), was misled into invading Iraq by Cheney and his cabal of NeoCon extremists. But what dragged Blair into the same sinkhole? That's going to be an on-going question for a lot of us over the next years.
Campbell records how one of Mr Blair's staunchest allies, John Reid, and the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, looked "physically sick" when cabinet met on March 17, 2003, the day before the Commons vote to endorse the war.
Mr Reid, then party chairman, "said never underestimate the instincts for unity and understand that we will be judged by the Iraq that replaces Saddam's Iraq, and by the Middle East", Campbell wrote in the first publication of extracts from his long-awaited, but heavily edited, diaries.
I recall having severe doubts about the wisdom of invading Iraq, even with the threat of WMD's in the news, but then being somewhat mollified when I learned that Tony Blair was supporting the invasion. With bush everyone knew it was political and probably directed by Karl Rove (Cheney's great power was not yet widely reported) but Tony was independent of the Bush extremists. Blair's agreement on the invasion gave Bush's invasion plans a lot more weight. Now it is clear that somehow Tony Blair was also somehow suckered into the invasion. What is not yet clear is how.
I'm really waiting for more on this part of the story.
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