Tony Blair wanted to clarify his view with regard to Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war. Before a panel of British officials leading what is known as the Chilcot inquiry, the former Prime Minister stated unequivocally that given a second chance, he would make the same decision.
Blair declared that Saddam Hussein was a menace to international security—a “monster” who had annihilated hundreds of thousands thousands of his own citizens and threatened the safety of millions more—whose defeat was absolutely essential to the well-being of the Iraqi people. Blair’s arguments focused on the foreseeable danger that Hussein would eventually gain access to nuclear weapons and the problems posed by the existence of a second regional power—Iran being the other—to which terrorist organizations would flock seeking support for anti-Western initiatives.
Responding to allegations that he falsified intelligence reports and plotted in secret with Former U.S. President George W. Bush to invade Iraq a year before the start of the war and depose Hussein, Blair said that nothing of the sort had ever taken place; the meetings with Bush, he said, involved discussions about the need to neutralize the threat posed by the former Iraqi dictator.
Read more at The BBC.