UK Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded during an interview on Al-Jazeera that Iraq was a disaster. Veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost suggested involvement in the country had “so far been pretty much of a disaster” to which the Prime Minister agreed. Blair continued, “It has, but you see, what I say to people is, ‘why is it difficult in Iraq?’ It’s not difficult because of some accident in planning, it’s difficult because there’s a deliberate strategy - al-Qaida with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war.”

Blair’s excuse for the failure in Iraq runs contrary to the fact that reconstruction efforts were riddled with incompetence and cronyism from the beginning, which then allowed opportunist militants to gain hold of the country. Instead, Blair suggests that such militants were the cause of western failure, not the result of it.

In regard to the interview, liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell remarked, “At long last the enormity of the decision to take military action against Iraq is being accepted by the prime minister.” The Prime Minister’s office expectedly downplayed his admittance of failure. “I think that’s just the way in which he answers questions,” a spokesman said. “His views on Iraq are documented in hundreds of places, and that is not one of them.”

However, Blair’s remark came only hours after Margaret Hodge, his trade and industry minister, described Iraq as Blair’s “big mistake in foreign affairs” and harshly criticized his “moral imperialism”. Ms Hodge spoke candidly at a private dinner, confessing that she had doubted the Prime Minister’s approach to foreign affairs as far back as 1998, because of his belief in imposing British values and ideas on other countries. She then added, “I hope this isn’t being reported.” Unfortunately for her, a journalist for The Islington Tribune took shorthand notes of the entire meeting. A spokesman for Hodge is denying the comments were ever made.

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