Tony Blair at the Iraq War inquiry

Tony Blair is to appear for the second time at the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war.Questioning covered his motives for invading Iraq in alliance with the US, his handling of the country's occupation, and the legality of the war itself.
He also argued that Iran and al-Qaeda, not his own poor planning, distrupted the rebuilding of Iraq's government and infrastructure.
Blair was mostly positive during his first appearance, but admitted that there hadn't been proper planning for what happened after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Planners did not foresee the huge destabilizing roles played by Iran and insurgents, or problems with Iraq's civil service, he said.
"We didn't plan for two things. One was, as I say, the absence of this properly functioning civil service infrastructure," said Blair.
He noted that planners assumed Iraq would have a functioning civil service, but said a lesson to be learned is that in states operated by fear, as was the case under the Hussein regime, "that assumption is going to be wrong."
Blair also said the "single most important element of this whole business of what happened afterwards -- people did not think that al Qaeda and Iran would play the role that they did."
Planners did not assume Iran, which neighbors Iraq and backed Shiite militants there, would play the "provocative" role it eventually did, he said.
He insisted that the invasion was lawful, based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Many critics of the invasion said at the time that a further resolution would be needed to authorize war.
Blair admitted that it would have been "politically" preferable to have a second resolution.
Source : CNN

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