Political biography shows Blair `owning up to Iraq bungle

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has finally owned up to his government having bungled in sending troops to fight the war in Iraq.

London, Oct.29 : Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has finally owned up to his government having bungled in sending troops to fight the war in Iraq.

According to The Independent and The Times, Blair failed to stand up to George Bush over the invasion of Iraq.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has in a damaging disclosure told political biographer Anthony Seldon that, "In the end Blair would always support the president.

"I found this very surprising. I never really understood why Blair seemed to be in such harmony with Bush. I thought, well, the Brits haven't been attacked on 9/11. How did he reach the point that he sees Saddam as such a threat? Jack and I would get him all pumped up about an issue. And he'd be ready to say, 'Look here, George'. But as soon as he saw the president he would lose all his steam," Powell adds.

Dr Seldon also discloses that two of Blair's most senior Downing Street advisers, Sir David Manning and Baroness Sally Morgan, argued against the war.

According to The Times, Blair virtually regarded the result of the 2005 general election as a defeat for which he blamed himself and the Iraq war.

As the early results suggested a much-reduced Labour majority, Blair went into the garden and started muttering "It's all my fault" and "Iraq", the book reveals.

He accepted that Iraq weakened his authority as Prime Minister to make the changes to the machinery of government that he wanted and to appoint the Government that he needed. And it further enfeebled him in his relationship with Gordon Brown.

Astonishing revelations in "Blair Unbound" suggest that Brown regularly told Blair to "F off" as the Prime Minister put forward possible ministerial changes in the reshuffle after the election, and that plans drawn up by his advisers to revamp the Treasury were blocked immediately.

The biography paints an extraordinary picture of a prime minister impotent to do what he desired, despite having given Labour a record third term, as he crumbled in front of John Prescott and Brown when they resisted his planned changes.

ANI