Former British prime minister Tony Blair has admitted that he “may have been wrong” about the decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaking in BBC Radio 4’s The Archbishop Interviews series on Sunday, Blair defended his decision to intervene in the Middle East alongside former US president George Bush.
“People often say over Iraq or Afghanistan that I took the wrong decision but you’ve got to do what you think is right,” the former premier said, defending a decision that many consider indefensible.
“Whether you are right or not is another matter. In those really big decisions you don’t know what all the different component elements are, and you’ve got to follow, in the end, your own instinct,” he added.
The 68-year-old former Labour Party leader who has been blasted for his role in horrendous war crimes committed in war-torn countries – Iraq and Afghanistan – by the British military forces, said although the decision “may have been wrong,” he had to do “what I thought was the right thing.”
Despite his controversial decision in ordering British troop deployments in foreign wars, Blair was appointed a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter — the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry – by the country’s Queen Elizabeth II.
An online petition to strip him of his knighthood gathered more than one million signatures.
The petition said Blair caused “irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and the very fabric of the nation’s society”.
“He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts,” it further read. “For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes.”
“Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honor,” the petition noted.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
