Now Blair uses crisis to justify Iraq War

TONY Blair was yesterday accused of using the Syria crisis to justify his disastrous invasion of Iraq.

In a 20-minute slot on the Today programme, the former Labour leader said that although military intervention was difficult, not intervening also had consequences – as Syria proved.

He said that inaction had led to dictator Bashar Al Assad and his backers being ‘emboldened to act’.

Mr Blair said Britain should back US air strikes on Assad’s forces, adding: ‘If the US are taking action we should be prepared to be alongside them.’

He also said he did not think it was ‘necessary’ for the Prime Minister to ask MPs to vote on the issue because ground troops would not be deployed.

He said: ‘ They [Assad’s troops] are winning but they are winning because their outside backers are prepared to intervene and to commit and, frankly, we have not been able to.’

Mr Blair, who was the Middle East peace envoy until 2015, said that this was because of the ‘ difficulties of intervention’.

He said: ‘I know that it’s extremely difficult but the problem is non-interven-

‘Trying to rewrite history’

tion is also a policy with consequences. Iraq shows you that intervening is extremely difficult but non-intervention – as we see from Syria – is also extremely difficult.

‘The problem in the Middle East is that you do have actors that are prepared to intervene and if you look at the commitment that Russia and Iran have made in Syria it is enormous.’

He added: ‘I’m simply saying that where you intervene, as we’ve seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s extremely difficult but where you don’t intervene, as we’ve seen in Syria, it’s also difficult.

‘It is important to realise that if we allow it to go unchecked and unanswered then obviously the Assad regime and backers will be emboldened to act.’

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said Mr Blair was using Syria to justify his failed intervention in Iraq.

Referring to the Blair government’s alleged attempts to ‘spin’ intelligence reports to overstate the case for war in Iraq, he said: ‘I think he is attempting to rewrite history and thinks the British people don’t remember the dodgy dossier that got us into the situation in the first place.

‘It is a bit much for him trying to get us into another war justified by his illegal intervention in the Iraq War.

‘He was the Middle East peace envoy for a long time and that wasn’t successful because during that time [the region] was the most volatile that it has ever been.’