Blair urged ‘gung-ho’ stance on Saddam

A FULL year before the US-led invasion of Iraq, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair told his chief of staff, the West should be “gung-ho” on toppling Saddam Hussein, a panel looking into the conflict disclosed yesterday.

Blair returned to testify for a second time before a five-member panel scrutinising Britain’s role in the unpopular war — having been recalled after witnesses raised doubts about sections of his testimony at an initial appearance a year ago.

As Blair was questioned, the panel released a series of letters and documents detailing the intense discussions inside the British government over how to respond to the perceived threat posed by Saddam.

In a letter to his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, on March 17, 2002, Blair said “the case should be obvious” for removing the Iraqi leader from power.

Nations that opposed dictatorships and that had supported action in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone “should be gung-ho on Saddam”, Blair wrote.

But he acknowledged it would be difficult to convince sceptics of the need for action, and acknowledged Iraq’s weapons program didn’t “seem obviously worse than 3 years ago”.

“The persuasion job on this seems very tough. My own side are worried. Public opinion is fragile. International opinion — as I found at the EU — is pretty sceptical,” Blair wrote.

“People believe we are only doing it to support the US, and they are only doing it to settle an old score,” he wrote. “So we have to reorder our story and message. Increasingly, I think it should be about the nature of the regime.”

In his reply, Powell told Blair they should focus “a Rolls-Royce information campaign” on human rights abuses by Saddam’s regime.

Another released document, a note prepared in December 2001 by another senior adviser, warned Blair the legal case for military action would be “threadbare”.

Other documents showed that as late as January 2003, officials were still scrambling for legal grounds to justify the war.

In his testimony Friday, Blair repeated his view that the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States meant nations needed to deal with — not just contain — potential aggressors.

“I didn’t see Sept 11 as an attack on America, I saw it as an attack on us — the West,” Blair told the panel. Britain’s government established the inquiry to examine the case made for the war and errors in planning for post-conflict reconstruction — but it won’t apportion blame or establish criminal or civil liability. Its recommendations are expected by the end of year.

Much evidence heard since the hearings began in November 2009 has focused on accusations Blair offered Bush support for an invasion as early as April 2002 — a year before legislators approved Britain’s involvement.

The atmosphere before yesterday’s session was soured when British authorities refused to publish notes — seen by the panel — that Blair sent to then-US President George W Bush ahead of the war.

Blair told the inquiry he regretted “deeply and profoundly” the deaths of British troops and Iraqi civilians.

Members of the audience watching him give evidence jeered at his comments.

“Too late,” cried Rose Gentle, the mother of Fusilier Gordon Gentle, who died in Basra aged 19 in 2004.

Others in the room echoed her cry. “You’ve had years,” shouted one.

Other relatives were openly crying in the public gallery. Blair left without even glancing towards them.