Unrepentant Blair defends taking Britain to war

AN unrepentant Tony Blair has said he has “no regrets” about removing Saddam Hussein and joining the United States in attacking Iraq, arguing yesterday before a panel investigating the war that the September 11, 2001, attacks made the threat of weapons of mass destruction impossible to ignore.

The former British prime minister said before September 11 he thought “Saddam was a menace, that he was a threat, he was a monster, but we would have to try and make the best of it”.

The attacks on New York and Washington changed everything, he said. “After that time, my view was you could not take risks with this issue at all,” he said.