Tony Blair admits Iraq still faces 'long, hard struggle'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted that life in Iraq is still not what he hoped 10 years after the UK joined a US-led invasion of the country.
Life in Iraq remains “not nearly what it should be” 10 years after the British and American invasion, Tony Blair admitted last night.
The former Prime Minister, who led the UK into war against Saddam Hussain’s regime in 2003, said that despite “significant improvements in many parts of the country for the people”, Iraq still faced a “long, hard struggle” to combat continuing terrorist attacks.
Despite the death toll among both British armed forces and Iraqi civilians being “very, very high”, Mr Blair told BBC’s Newsnight that the “complex and difficult” decision to go to war was the right one.
“Just think what would be happening if these Arab revolutions were continuing now and Saddam, who was probably 20 times as bad as Assad in Syria, was trying to suppress an uprising in Iraq,” he said.
“So when you say, ‘Do you think of the loss of life and the trouble there’s been since 2003?’, of course I do and you would be inhumane not to.
“But think what would have happened if he’d been left there.”
Conceding that he had “long since given up trying to persuade people it was the right decision”, Mr Blair added that it would be a “profound mistake” to suggest the UK could back away from “ugly” choices on international crises.
“You’ve got one in Syria right now, you’ve got one in Iran to come,” he said. “The issue is: how do you make the world a safer place? We are in the middle of this struggle, it is going to take a generation, it is going to be very arduous and difficult. But I think we are making a mistake, a profound error, if we think we can stay out of that struggle.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments