| Damning new revelations published today (Sun) expose the extraordinary extent of the deception perpetrated by former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in his planning for the illegal invasion of Iraq, SNP Leader and First Minister Alex Salmond said today. As the tenth anniversary of the invasion approaches, today’s Sunday Telegraph quotes senior White House staff who worked for George W Bush confirming that they had viewed it as a certainty that Mr Blair would back any US-led invasion, long before he publicly committed the UK to taking part. The former Labour PM, who also this week made a cack-handed intervention into the debate on Scotland’s future, made clear his unwavering support for US policy nearly a year before the invasion, after a visit to the former president’s personal ranch in Texas. Sir Christopher Meyer, the UK ambassador to Washington prior to the war, said that Mr Blair’s mistakes on Iraq flowed from a “black and white” world view that was “more evangelical than the American Christian Right”. The First Minister said that the legacy of Blair’s actions was a “poisoning of the atmosphere” in global politics resulting from the decision to go to war on a false prospectus. Alex Salmond said: “The illegal invasion of Iraq has been unequivocally proven as a fraud and a massive deception by Tony Blair and the then UK Labour government. “Blair was committed to sending troops into a bloody war regardless of evidence – or indeed lack of evidence – of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and today’s revelations are utterly damning in that respect. “Many tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilian lives have been needlessly lost and hundreds of service personal from the UK, including many young Scots, have tragically perished too or have been horrifically maimed because of Blair’s determination to back George W Bush come what may. “The result of Tony Blair’s blind commitment to going to war on Iraq is a poisoning of the atmosphere in global politics which remains today. “Blair’s catastrophic toxic legacy is still with us – and threatens to remain with us for years to come." Following on from the damning revelations that Mr Blair went to war in Iraq without evidence, cause or due preparation, the SNP Leader added: “The lack of opposition to the war in Iraq at Westminster was disturbing. The SNP and principled voices from other parties warned against the invasion at the time – but the Tories’ commitment to Blair’s war was as explicit as it was wrong, and they utterly failed in their duty as the principal party of opposition in the Commons. “One of the key lessons of the Iraq war is the need for all nations, large and small, to conduct international affairs as cooperatively as possible, paying due heed to the authority of the United Nations and acting as good global citizens rather than engaging in reckless military adventures with incalculable human and material costs.” ENDS Notes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9919930/Iraq-War-major-new-questions-for-Tony-Blair.html |