Blair’s terrible legacy

TONY BLAIR is the sole reason for the innumerable problems now destabilising the Middle East.

Etched for ever in the memory is his infamous assertion that Saddam Hussain possessed weapons of mass destruction ready to be deployed within 45 minutes — all based on a dodgy dossier devised by Blair’s guru, Alastair Campbell.

But for this outrageous lie, the entire region would have continued to govern itself. Consequently, there would be no ISIS, no downing of the Russian Metrojet and no atrocities in France where more than 129 people were slaughtered by ISIS.

There would be no migrant hordes of Syrians inveigling themselves into European countries and no retaliation threats after a Turkish war plane attacked and destroyed a Russian plane after it, supposedly, entered Turkish air space.

In 2004, the commuter trains in Madrid would not have been bombed, leaving 191 people dead and 500 injured, and there would not have been carnage in San Bernadino, California, last autumn, when 14 people were killed and 22 wounded.

Last year, when he was interviewed on CNN, Blair offered a qualified apology for intelligence mistakes in Iraq and admitted there were ‘elements of truth’ in how the war triggered the growth of ISIS.

We await the outcome of the Chilcot report, if it ever gets published, and pray the truth will be revealed. Then Blair must face cross-examination by the war crimes commission in The Hague. If this is circumvented, there’s something seriously amiss with the world’s ruling class.

DENNIS GARLAND, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.