Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he’s sorry for “mistakes” made in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but he doesn’t regret bringing down dictator Saddam Hussein. “I can say that I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong because, even though he had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people, against others, the program in the form that we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought,” Blair said in an exclusive interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.Blair was referring to the claim that Saddam’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction, which was used by the U.S. and British governments to justify launching the invasion. But the intelligence reports the claim was based on turned out to be false. Blair insists that he does not regret the removal of Saddam Hussein, claiming ‘it is better that he’s not there.’ The specific apology is for incorrect intelligence, mistakes in planning and mistakes in understanding what would happen once the regime were removed. Blair is expected to come forth with more admissions once the full interview airs, but the question now is whether an apology can cut it. Blair’s admission holds little water, especially at the time of the Iraq invasion a number of key observers and millions of people on the streets had warned the US and UK governments that a war in Iraq would be an unmitigated disaster. What Mr Blair failed to emphasise were two important points: one, the Baathist regime had welcomed the UN’s decision to send an inspection team to Iraq to find out whether it possessed weapons of mass destruction; and two, inspection team chief Hans Blix reported to the UN he had found “no smoking gun”.
The Bush-Blair duo still decided to go for the military option. What followed the success of the invasion is before us in the form of the IS. Its meteoric success in warfare in 2014 was preceded by a great tragedy for Iraqi civilians, who were subjected to ‘sanctions’ that resulted in deaths still not fully counted. The general view is that the invasion of the cradle of civilisation was launched either to destroy a country which Israel thought posed a security threat to it, or to control Iraq’s oil, or both. Furthermore How is an apology enough when over 200,000 Iraqis died in the direct invasion while millions more have been displaced by the Isis offensive? How is an apology enough for the human rights abuses by Nato troops in Iraqi jails, including Abu Ghraib? How is an apology enough for completely destabilising the Middle East, resulting in the rise of Isis? Blair’s apology only rubs salt into the wounds of those who have suffered from this imperialist adventurism in the Middle East. The apology is another reminder to those who question why Blair and ex-US president George Bush have not been tried for war crimes till now.
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