AN EMOTIONAL and shaky Tony Blair today said he expresses “more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or could believe” over the invasion of Iraq.
Following this morning’s publication of Sir John Chilcot's much-delayed report on the conclusions of the Iraq Inquiry, the former prime minister addressed the findings in a dramatic press conference.
With his voice breaking, the ex-Labour premier said invading Iraq in 2003 was “the hardest, most momentous, agonising decision I took in 10 years as Prime Minister".
He added: “That decision, today I accept full responsibility, without exception and without excuse. I recognise the division felt by many on our country over the war.
"In particular I feel deeply and sincerely in a way that no words can properly convey.
"The assessments were wrong the aftermath was more hostile and bloody than imagined.
"The coalition planned for one set of ground facts and found another.
"I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know."
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But Mr Blair said there were two allegations from critics of the war he could not accept - that the 2003 invasion sparked a growth in terror groups; and that the 179 British service personnel who died in the conflict “made their sacrifice in vain”.
Mr Blair also defiantly insisted he had not deceived Parliament, voters or the families of fallen servicemen with the reasons for going to war.
He said: "I can look not just the families but this nation in the eye and say I did not mis-lead this country."
He also said he would not shy away from the decision he took, adding: "What I can not do and will not do is say we took the wrong decision."
He went on: "The point about being prime minister is we are the decision maker."
Mr Blair insisted "there is no inconsistency in expressing sorrow and regret for those who lost lives, but saying I was right".
He added: "I spend so much of my time thinking about this issue, I spend so much of my life analysing it."
The former PM also denied there was a “secret commitment to war” with then-US president George W. Bush.
He added there was not a “rush to war” as critics have branded events in late 2002 and early 2003.
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Mr Blair said he would accept Sir John’s report “makes serious criticisms of how the decision was taken” to invade Iraq.
But he asked people “to put themselves in my shoes as prime minister” in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York and the alleged build-up of weapons of mass destruction by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
He said he took the decision to go to war in a “changed context of mass casualties” as a result of terror atrocities.
Mr Blair said his government had to “at least consider the possibility” of a 9/11-style attack occurring in Britain.
He blasted the modern political culture of “believing the worst in everyone”, insisting he took the decision to invade Iraq “because I thought it was right” and the cost of leaving Hussein in power would be greater than intervention.
He asked: "Would we have wanted to take that risk of leaving him in place?"
"Saddam was going to pose a threat in my view as long as he was left in power."
Chilcot inquiry: Britain's invasion of Iraq in 2003
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Mr Blair insisted it would have been "impossible to reassemble" those invasion forces if the UK and US had backed away from action in 2003.
And he noted Sir John himself had admitted military intervention may have had to occur at a later date.
Mr Blair, who spoke longer than Sir John himself when he delivered his findings earlier, noted how the Inquiry had not found "alternative approaches" for planning for the aftermath of the conflict - a failure for which is one of the report's most stinging criticisms.
He asked people to consider whether the world was more or less safe following the overthrow of Hussein.
Mr Blair suggested he believed the rise of terror groups such as ISIS and the brutal civil war being waged in Syria were better attributed to the 2011 'Arab Spring' of pro-democracy uprisings across the Middle East.
Without the 2003 overthrow of Hussein, Mr Blair insisted "the nightmare of Syria today would have been happening in Iraq".
Mr Blair said: "All decisions are difficult. Each has consequences predicted and unpredicted".
He admitted some would "find it impossible to reconcile themselves" with the Iraq War and his decisions.
But he added we "can't make the decision with the benefit of hindsight but we can and should learn" lessons from the "mistakes that I made".
He said: "The decisions that I made I have carried with me for 13 years and I will do for the rest of my days."
He said the controversy over Iraq was why he now spends so much time on peace projects in the Middle East.
He urged world leaders to "learn the right lessons" in the hope of achieving a "lasting peace in the region.
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