{"id":15718,"date":"2016-07-07T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T11:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=15718"},"modified":"2016-07-07T12:34:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T11:34:00","slug":"defiant-under-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/07\/defiant-under-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Defiant Under Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has stood by his decision behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite the damning Chilcot report criticising his actions.<\/p>\n<p>A detailed report published by Sir John Chilcot has condemned the former leader stating that Saddam Hussein \u201cposed no imminent threat\u201d and that war was suggested without attempt at peaceful negotiations. The report also criticises Blair\u2019s backing behind the claim of lethal chemical weapons.<\/p>\n<p>It also mentions the deaths of \u201cat least 150,000 Iraqis \u2013 and probably many more \u2013 most of them civilians\u201d and \u201cmore than a million people displaced\u201d. The report stated \u201cThe people of Iraq have suffered greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, families of armed service members who died in the 2003 invasion have attacked Blair for his decision to enter war labelling him a \u201cliar\u201d and \u201cthe world\u2019s worst terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blair stood at a press conference at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in Westminster defending his motivation behind the controversial invasion stating it was \u201cthe hardest, most momentous, most agonising decision I took in 10 years as British prime minister\u201d. He extends sympathy to the families stating he feels, \u201cdeeply and sincerely &#8230; the grief and suffering of those who lost ones they loved in Iraq\u2026There will not be a day when I do not relive and rethink what happened\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However Blair stands by the UK\u2019s involvement arguing, \u201cI believe we made the right decision and the world is better and safer.\u201d He however admits that the belief that weapons of mass destruction were present \u201cturned out to be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Details of the Chilcot enquiry include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein.<\/li>\n<li>The judgments about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq\u2019s weapons of mass destruction \u2013 WMDs \u2013 were presented with a certainty that was not justified.<\/li>\n<li>Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam were wholly inadequate.<\/li>\n<li>The government failed to achieve its stated objectives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Blair went on to say, \u201cThe report should lay to rest allegations of bad faith, lies or deceit\u2026Whether people agree or disagree with my decision to take military action against Saddam Hussein, I took it in good faith and in what I believed to be the best interests of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026I will take full responsibility for any mistakes without exception or excuse\u2026I will at the same time say why, nonetheless, I believe that it was better to remove Saddam Hussein and why I do not believe this is the cause of the terrorism we see today whether in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world. Above all I will pay tribute to our armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has stood by his decision behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite the damning Chilcot report criticising his actions. A detailed report published by Sir John Chilcot has condemned the former leader stating that Saddam Hussein \u201cposed no imminent threat\u201d and that war was suggested without attempt at peaceful negotiations. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":15719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,3,40,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-news","category-politics-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}