Tony Blair apologized for the faulty intelligence on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction during an interview with plagiarist Fareed Zakaria.
Blair went on to say he finds it hard to apologize for the removal of the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein.
Blair did not apologize for the Iraq War as the Daily Mail claims he did.
Via The Daily Mail:
Appearing on the US TV network CNN Tony Blair was asked directly whether the decision to enter Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein had been ‘a mistake’.
He replied: ‘You know whenever I’m asked this I can say that I apologise for the fact that the intelligence I received was wrong.
‘Because even though he had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people against others, the programme in the form we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought. So I can apologise for that.
‘I can also apologise, by the way, for some of the mistakes in planning and certainly our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you had removed the regime.
‘But I find it hard to apologise for removing Saddam. I think even from today 2015 it’s better that he is not there than he is there.’
Mr Blair was then asked whether the invasion of Iraq was the ‘principle cause’ of the rise of ISIS.
The former Prime Minister said: ‘I think there are elements of truth in that. But we have got to be extremely careful otherwise we will misunderstand what’s going on in Iraq and in Syria today.
‘Of course you can’t say that those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015.
‘But it’s important also to realise – one, that the Arab Spring which began in 2011 would also have had its impact on Iraq today. And two – ISIS actually came to prominence from a base in Syria and not in Iraq.
‘This leads me to the broader point, which I think is so essential when we are looking at policy today. We have tried intervention and putting down troops in Iraq. We’ve tried intervention without putting down troops in Libya.
‘And we’ve tried no intervention at all but demanding regime change in Syria.
‘It’s not clear to me that even if our policy did not work, subsequent policies have worked better.’
There were WMDs in Iraq by the way. They were smuggled into Syria and other places. But that was a distraction. We didn’t want to go after Saudi Arabia where most of the hijackers came from because of oil and money. We didn’t dare go after Iran because of money and the fear of stirring up a Jihadist hornet’s nest. “YOU WERE GIVEN THE CHOICE BETWEEN WAR AND DISHONOR. YOU CHOSE DISHONOR AND YOU WILL HAVE WAR.” WINSTON CHURCHILL… We chose dishonor and now we will have a world war. Choices were made and they were not made in ignorance, they were deliberate. Twelve years later Blair apologizes and it is yet another distraction from what should have been done long ago. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia should have been smoking holes in the ground. Saddam may have been a butcher, but so is every other Middle Eastern Islamic State. It is a way of life there. Save the apologies for those who died in the Twin Towers and the skies over America. They’re still waiting.