Former UK PM Blair says Iraq crisis not his fault, urges action
- 10 years ago
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Sunday (June 15) it was "profoundly wrong" to think that the 2003 Anglo-U.S. invasion of Iraq helped stoke the current crisis and urged the West to take targeted military action there.
In comments likely to anger his detractors at home and abroad who believe his decisions to intervene militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan made things worse, Blair told British TV that the Iraq crisis would have happened regardless of his actions.
Asked by BBC TV's Andrew Marr if he regretted the war in Iraq that started with the 2003 invasion, Blair said that he didn't believe that the region would be safer today if Saddam Hussein had been left in place.
"My point is very simple, even if you left Saddam in place in 2003 then when 2011 happened and you had the Arab revolutions going through Tunisia and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain and Egypt and Syria you would still have had a major problem in Iraq. Ind
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Sunday (June 15) it was "profoundly wrong" to think that the 2003 Anglo-U.S. invasion of Iraq helped stoke the current crisis and urged the West to take targeted military action there.
In comments likely to anger his detractors at home and abroad who believe his decisions to intervene militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan made things worse, Blair told British TV that the Iraq crisis would have happened regardless of his actions.
Asked by BBC TV's Andrew Marr if he regretted the war in Iraq that started with the 2003 invasion, Blair said that he didn't believe that the region would be safer today if Saddam Hussein had been left in place.
"My point is very simple, even if you left Saddam in place in 2003 then when 2011 happened and you had the Arab revolutions going through Tunisia and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain and Egypt and Syria you would still have had a major problem in Iraq. Ind