Tony Blair and the Iraq Enquiry

Tony Blair gave an assured performance as he gave evidence at the Iraq Enquiry on Friday 29th January at the QEII Centre in London.
Blair stated that “The decision I took - and frankly would take again - was if there was any possibility that he (Saddam Hussein) could develop weapons of mass destruction we should stop him."
He faced a six hour grilling from the panel headed by committee chairman Sir John Chilcot.

Blair’s evidence consisted of different facts which he presented with dedication to the panel; he continuously drove this idea of the calculus of risk. “Our policy up to September 11th was containment. However, after September 11th the calculus of risk had changed.” Also, he argued that the basis for the war was Iraq’s breaching of UN disarmament agreements. These were the primary justifications by Mr Blair for intervention into the war.

Although he was persistent whilst being questioned, Blair had shown no remorse to the families of soldiers who had died in the war. Emotions were held back and the former Prime Minister replied “No” when Sir John Chilcot asked whether he had anything else to say.

Blair was justifying the biggest decision he made whilst he was Prime Minister. “And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?"

Links:

http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/

http://www.iraqinquirydigest.org/

Constituency Information

Name of Constituency: Mitcham & Morden

Name of MP: Siobhain McDonagh

Party: Labour

Majority: 12560