John Ware: Blair was warned of looming disaster in Iraq-and did nothing

[babylonsister]

Blair was warned of looming disaster in Iraq

By John Ware
Last Updated: 1:29am BST 28/10/2007
Page 1 of 3

John Ware discloses how the former prime minister was told repeatedly about America's lack of planning for peace – and did nothing

Five days after the fall of Saddam, Tony Blair declared: "Iraq will be better. Better for the region, better for the world, better, above all, for the Iraqi people."

Yet, as we know, four and a half years later, Iraq is far from a better place. It is still in pieces and the reality is that by invading Iraq not only did Britain help to break the country but we are no longer seriously trying to fix it. As No Plan, No Peace on BBC1 tonight and tomorrow will show, despite his promises, Mr Blair was aware before the invasion that America's planning for post-war recovery was woefully inadequate — and so was Britain's.

It has become clear that Mr Blair had severe doubts about US plans to stabilise Iraq after the invasion. There was no properly worked out strategy for the key longer-term objective of transforming it into a stable, prosperous nation that the Blair-Bush vision held out.

We know Mr Blair was aware that post-war Iraq might be heading for trouble because Lady {Sally} Morgan, his former political secretary, says he was "tearing his hair out"; Sir David Manning, his foreign affairs adviser at the time of the invasion, has said he was "very exercised about it"; Peter Mandelson has also said he knew the preparations were inadequate.

The fact that Mr Blair knew all this is potentially far more damaging to his reputation than his decision to put the full weight of his office behind the flawed intelligence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. For that, he had cover from the Secret Intelligence Service.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/28/nrblair128.xml

[rwheeler31]

1. Why?

[babylonsister]

2. Why what? Why did he lie?

:shrug:

[Devlzown]

3. I would say either blackmail or he saw an opportunity

to give something back to his masters or some combination of both.

[...of J.Temperance]

4. Blair was a little whore from the get-go

So WHY would ANYONE expect him to have given a shit about the lack of US planning for after the Shock and Awe carpet bombing.