Here’s an idea. Let’s interview Blair every month for eternity. He’s currently at Chilcot making an exceptionally good case about the war in Iraq. Again. You can watch him live.
They’ve also release a note from 2002, that shows Blair’s humanitarian urge was not the post-hoc cover some suggest :
The inquiry also released a note from Mr Blair to Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, shortly before his visit to then US President George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, in which he argued that Labour should be “gung-ho” about dealing with Saddam Hussein.
In the note, Mr Blair said that, from “a centre-left perspective”, the case for action against the Iraqi dictator should be “obvious”.
“Saddam’s regime is a brutal, oppressive military dictatorship. He kills his opponents, has wrecked his country’s economy and is a source of instability and danger in the region,” he wrote.
“I can understand a right-wing Tory opposed to ‘nation-building’ being opposed to it on grounds it hasn’t any direct bearing on our national interest.
“But in fact a political philosophy that does care about other nations – eg Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone – and is prepared to change regimes on the merits, should be gung-ho on Saddam.”