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Blair remains firm on Iraq
29/04/2005 07:57 - (SA)
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair made a robust televised defence of his decision to go to war with Iraq, rebuffing criticism raised by the release of a secret memo from his top legal adviser warning of the legal consequences of invading without a second United Nations resolution.
Blair's political opponents said the two-year-old memo from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith - released by the government on Thursday after it was leaked to the media - showed the prime minister had deceived Britain.
Blair fervently denied that charge during a television appearance.
"For the past few days it's been said that the attorney general advised that it was illegal to go to war," Blair told the audience at a British Broadcasting Corporation panel programme. "He didn't. He advised it was lawful."
Unapologetic
Blair had long refused to publish the March 7 2003 memo, saying it was confidential. Instead the prime minister pointed to the written statement to parliament by Goldsmith 10 days later, which said the war would be legal without another resolution.
The two documents differ markedly.
In the 13-page March 7 memo, Goldsmith said existing United Nations Security Council resolutions provided "a reasonable case" for military action, but advised that a new resolution authorising force would be the "safest legal course." That resolution never came.
On March 17 Goldsmith advised parliament that "authority to use force against Iraq exists from the combined effect of (Security Council) resolutions 678, 687 and 1441."
The prime minister's main electoral opponent, Conservative leader Michael Howard, said Thursday that "If you can't trust Mr Blair on the decision to take the country to war, the most important decision a prime minister can take, how can you trust Mr Blair on anything else ever again?"
Opinion polls show Blair's Labour Party with a solid lead before the May 5 election, but Howard hopes his about-face on Goldsmith's advice could derail the final days of Labour's election campaign.
Howard, who has branded Blair a liar, said the document reinforced doubts about Blair's integrity and ability to lead the country.
"Mr Blair has said that the attorney general's advice to the Cabinet on the 17th March was 'very clear' that the war was legal, and that the attorney general had not changed his mind," Howard said. "It is obvious that he did. So what the public must now have an answer to is this: what, or who, changed the attorney general's mind?"
But Howard's support for the war may undermine his ability to use lingering controversy over the conflict to his electoral advantage.
Blair was unapologetic about his support for the United States-led war.
"It is, however, a question of the difficult decision I had to take: was it better to leave Saddam in power or put him in prison. I think it was better to put him in prison."
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