Blair the sycophant: His crawling to Bush led to an epic foreign policy disgrace, says former DPP

By Tim Shipman

Tony Blair's 'sycophancy' towards George Bush drove him to invade Iraq and into 'a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions', according to a devastating critique by a top lawyer.

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald said Mr Blair and Mr Bush engaged in 'an alarming subterfuge' to drag their nations into war.

In the strongest-yet public attack on Mr Blair's decision to go to war, Sir Ken took issue with the former Prime Minister's claim in a TV interview that he would have backed toppling Saddam Hussein even if he had known the dictator had no weapons of mass destruction.


Sycophant: Former prime minister Tony Blair was accused of using 'alarming

subtrefuge' to mislead the British people into war in Iraq by the former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken MacDonald

'This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions and playing footsie on Sunday morning television does nothing to repair the damage,' Sir Ken said.

In an article for The Times, he wrote: 'Mr Blair's fundamental flaw was his sycophancy towards power.

'Perhaps this seems odd in a man who drank so much of that mind-altering brew at home.

'But Washington turned his head and he couldn't resist the stage or the glamour that it gave him.'



Blair and Fern Britton ahead of their interview for the BBC

Sir Ken's intervention is damning since it is the latest evidence of grave unease in the legal community over Mr Blair's decision to go to war.

Allies of Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General, have already claimed that he wrote to Mr Blair eight months before the war telling him regime change would be illegal.

Lord Goldsmith later changed his mind after apparently coming under intense pressure from Mr Blair and his aides.

A succession of senior civil servants, diplomats and military commanders have made clear that in the two years before the war, regime change alone was not regarded as a legal basis for invasion.

Sir Ken added: 'It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Tony Blair engaged in an alarming subterfuge with his partner George Bush and went on to mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn't want, and on a basis that it's increasingly hard to believe even he found truly credible.'


Decision makers: Mr Blair and George Bush invaded Iraq in 2003

His words will be doubly wounding for the former PM since Sir Ken was appointed in 2003 under his government and is a member of Matrix Chambers, where his wife Cherie practises as a barrister.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg added his voice to the criticism yesterday, attacking Gordon Brown as well as Mr Blair for taking Britain to war on the 'paper-thin excuses of WMD'.

Mr Blair will be quizzed about his approach in the New Year when the Chilcot Inquiry into the war turns its attention to the legality issue.


Sir Ken accused the Iraq Inquiry, which is headed by Sir John Chilcot, of 'unchallenging' questioning


He is expected to make clear that he regarded ousting Saddam as a 'moral' issue - a view friends say he still holds. But Sir Ken was dismissive of Mr Blair's continuing belief in the sanctity of his actions.
'We have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that hand on heart, "I only did what I thought was right". But this is the narcissist's defence and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death.'
Sir Ken said the Chilcot Inquiry 'will be held in deserved and withering contempt' if it fails to get to the truth.
A spokesman for the inquiry yesterday insisted that Mr Blair would give evidence in public, flatly denying that there have been any talks about him being called to private hearings as some reports have suggested.
'Mr Blair will be appearing very much in public and will be questioned in detail on a wide range of issues,' he said.
Sources close to Sir John Chilcot revealed that he is receiving regular updates of media controversies over Iraq - including the Daily Mail's revelation that a taxi driver could have been a crucial source of Mr Blair's dodgy dossier.
The source indicated that Mr Blair would face questioning on weapons of mass destruction, intelligence, and the meeting in Crawford, Texas in 2002 in which he and Mr Bush apparently planned the war.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said he would not be responding to Sir Ken's claims, but added: 'We have always said we will do whatever the committee wants us to. Tony Blair is very happy to give evidence in public.'
The Chilcot Inquiry heard yesterday from a senior ground commander who said the postwar problems in Iraq were made worse because British generals served for only six months at a time.
Lieutenant General John Kiszely, who was senior British military representative in Iraq from October 2004 to April 2005, said 'manifestly it was not long enough' and led to a risk of being treated as ' passing trade' by the Americans, who served a year at a time.
He added: 'I don't think it reflected very well on the UK.'


source: dailymail