Blair’s latest insult to Iraq War victims

TONY Blair has sparked fury among the relatives of soldiers who died in Iraq – after claiming that in future, people will judge his decision to go to war more kindly than his contemporaries.

The former prime minister said that if Saddam Hussein had remained in power, he would have acted like Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad and turned on his own people.

Mr Blair’s comments were made in an article published the day after he made a series of qualified apologies for the conflict in an interview for US broadcaster CNN.

He said he believed history will be ‘ more balanced in its judgment’ of the war than present- day critics of the conflict. Blair’s comments have led critics to accuse him of simply preparing the ground for expected criticisms when the long-delayed report of the Chilcot Inquiry is finally published.

And yesterday Rose Gentle, whose 19-yearold son Fusilier Gordon Gentle died in the Iraq War in 2004, said: ‘I think history will remember him for taking our sons to war in Iraq. It is insulting and sickening to suggest we are not being fair to him in our criticisms now.’ Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003, called Mr Blair a ‘master of spin’, adding: ‘History will hang heavily upon those that invaded Iraq. He thinks history will be kinder to him, I don’t think so.’

And Janice Procter, 53, whose 18-year-old son Private Michael Tench was killed by a roadside bomb in 2007 said: ‘His comments are absolutely disrespectful to the lives he has taken and the families.

‘This man is a criminal and a liar. He’s delivered a half-baked apology, which is far too little, far too late and provides us with absolutely no comfort. He sent our sons to war. His comments are just making our wounds deeper – only the week before Remembrance Day.’