Intoxicated by power, Blair tricked us into war

In an article in the Times today Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, Director of Public Prosecutions until last year, says:

"The degree of deceit involved in our decision to go to war on Iraq becomes steadily clearer. This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions....

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....

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...

Since those sorry days 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 a narcissist’s defence and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death".

Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, practises at Matrix Chambers,the same London Chambers as the former Prime Minister’s wife, and is a visiting professor of law at the London School of Economics. He was appointed 'Director of Public Prosecutions in 2003, under the Blair government, and served until 2008.

British involvement in Iraq war blamed on Blair’s ‘sycophancy’- Times:

Ex-DPP: Tony Blair's attitude to Iraq war 'a disgrace'- BBC

'Sycophant' Tony Blair used deceit to justify Iraq war, says former DPP - Guardian

Britain misled into Iraq war by Blair's 'sycophancy to U.S. and alarming subterfuge with Bush', says former DPP - Daily Mail