Telegraph | News | 'No one lied. No one made up the intelligence'
Tony Blair is a classy fellow:
Tony Blair yesterday accepted responsibility for any mistakes made "in good faith" over the use of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.
But he stood by the decision to go to war. "I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all.
"Iraq, the region, the wider world is a better and safer place without Saddam," he said.
In a Commons statement on Lord Butler's findings, Mr Blair said he had searched his conscience over the issue of weapons of mass destruction.
"And my answer would be: that the evidence of Saddam's WMD was indeed less certain, less well-founded than was stated at the time."
But he said he could not go from there to the "opposite extreme" of accepting the war was unnecessary, since without action every dictator with the same intent as Saddam Hussein would have been "immeasurably emboldened".
In a detailed statement to MPs, Mr Blair said he fully accepted the Butler report's conclusions, which supported Lord Hutton's conclusions about the good faith of the intelligence services.
"But it also makes specific findings that the dossier and the intelligence behind it should have been better presented, had more caveats attached to it and been better validated."
Mr Blair said one issue had been good faith and integrity. Like the Hutton report, Lord Butler had found that: "No one lied. No one made up the intelligence. No one inserted things into the dossier against the advice of the intelligence services. Everyone genuinely tried to do their best in good faith for the country in circumstances of acute difficulty. That issue of good faith should now be at an end."
Mr Blair said he had expected to find actual usable, chemical or biological weapons after US and British forces entered Iraq.
"But I have to accept, as the months have passed, it seems increasingly clear that at the time of invasion, Saddam did not have stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons ready to deploy."
Even if the Government acted in good faith, did the absence of WMD now show the threat was misconceived and the war unjustified? Mr Blair said.
"I have searched my conscience, not in the spirit of obstinacy, but in genuine reconsideration in the light of what we now know, in answer to that question. And my answer would be that the evidence of Saddam's WMD was indeed less certain, less well-founded than was stated at the time.
"But I cannot go from there to the opposite extreme.
"On any basis he retained complete strategic intent on WMD and significant capability. The only reason he ever let the inspectors back into Iraq was that he had 180,000 US and British troops on his doorstep . . .
"Had we backed down in respect of Saddam, we would never have taken the stand we needed to take on WMD, never have got progress on Libya . . . and we would have left Saddam in charge of Iraq, with every malign intent and capability still in place and every dictator with the same intent everywhere immeasurably emboldened."
Mr Blair said: "For any mistakes made, as the report finds, in good faith, I of course take full responsibility. But I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all."