Blair again defends Saddam’s removal

IRAQ: Saddam Hussein would have acted like Syrian leader Bashar Assad and brutally rounded on his own people if the US-led coalition had not removed him from power, Tony Blair claimed.

The former PM said he believed history would be “more balanced in its judgment” of the decision to act than critics had been.

SADDAM HUSSEIN would have acted like Syrian leader Bashar Assad and brutally rounded on his own people if the US-led coalition had not removed him from power, Tony Blair claimed.

The former prime minister said he believed history would be “more balanced in its judgment” of the decision to act than the critics of the Iraq War had been.

Mr Blair, who has apologised for aspects of the Iraq War including the failure to plan properly for the aftermath of the dictator’s overthrow in 2003, said he understood the “anger and anxiety” caused by the conflict.

He said there had been a failure to understand the “full scale of the underlying extremism and its attendant violence” that was unleashed following the regime’s collapse.

Writing on the CNN website, Mr Blair said the Arab Spring of 2011 showed that “the real choice for the Middle East was, and is, reform or revolution”.

He said: “When we come to reassess Iraq, it is possible to disagree strongly with the decision to remove Saddam Hussein in 2003, to be highly critical both of the intelligence on WMD and the planning for the aftermath, and yet still be glad that he is gone.”

If he had still been in power at the time of the Arab Spring “it is hard to see how the upheaval would not have spread to Iraq” and, like Mr Assad, “the probability is that Hussein would have tried to cling to power by whatever means no matter how brutal”.

Mr Blair acknowledged that “Iraq has been hugely expensive in lives lost and money spent” adding: “I understand completely the anger and anxiety this causes.

“But we do not yet know the cost of Syria or Libya. In both cases, we sought regime change. And in Libya we achieved it through military power. I make no criticisms of these decisions. I know better than most how hard they are.

“However, it is not immediately plain that policy on Libya and Syria has been more successful than Iraq.”

He added: “Not until the Middle East has gone through its painful transition to modernity will we be able to pass a full judgment on the effects of decision to go to war in 2003

“But when I think of the hundreds of thousands of victims of Hussein –- the bloodshed and instability his wars caused the region and his people – then, for all the mistakes that were made and for which those of us involved have always apologised, I think history will be more balanced in its judgment.”

Mr Blair used an interview for CNN to express his regret about the failings in the intelligence used to justify the invasion and the chaos unleashed once Hussein had been toppled.

“I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” he told CNN. “I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning.”

I think history will be more balanced in its judgment

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair