Blair admits daily doubts over Iraq

Friday, 30 January 2009 2:35 PM

By politics.co.uk staff

Tony Blair, former prime minister and now envoy to the Middle East has admitted having doubts about his decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

In an interview with The Times, due to be published tomorrow, Mr Blair spoke of his "sense of responsibility" over soldier and civilian deaths that have followed in the wake of his decision.

In the interview he speaks of his daily contemplation of the decision and the consequences, in some of his most open comments on the Iraq war.

When asked if he suffered from doubt over Iraq, Mr Blair replied: "Of course you ask that question the whole time. You'd be weird if you didn't ask that question."

He said: "The most difficult thing in any set of circumstances is the sense of responsibility for people who have given their lives and fallen - the soldiers and the civilians.

"If I did not feel that, there really would be something wrong with me, and there is not a single day of my life when I do not reflect upon it . . . many times. And that's as it should be."

Mr Blair still believes that he took the right decision in invading Iraq as he suggests it could have saved more lives than if the invasion never occurred.

He said: "On the other hand you have to take the decision and I look at the Middle East now and I think, well, if Saddam and his two sons were still running Iraq how many other people would have died and would the region be more stable?"

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• foreign policy
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• iraq
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• middle east