Blair agrees Iraq is a disaster

November 18, 2006

Veteran broadcast journalist Sir David Frost recently interviewed British Prime Minister Tony Blair for Al Jazeera English.

In the first episode of "Frost over the World", a series of weekly interviews broadcast on Al Jazeera English in Britain by Sky TV, Frost asserted that "Iraq had been pretty much of a disaster from the start".

Responding, Blair said difficulties arose from "a deliberate strategy with al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other, to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war".

In response, a Downing Street spokeswoman said that the Prime Minister had been misrepresented, and that, in responding to Frost, he had merely been acknowledging the question, not agreeing that Iraq was a disaster. She said it would be "disingenuous to portray that as an admission". Despite that, several broadsheet papers headlined the remark as an admission that Iraq had been a disaster and Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of the UK Liberal Democrat Party, demanded that Blair should now apologise.

Less than 24 hours later a Downing Street spokesman claimed Mr. Blair's "tongue had 'slipped'", and that Mr. Blair did not think Saddam Hussein's removal nor the invasion was a disaster.