Blair: 'I was shocked by Iraq chaos'

Tony Blair admitted on American television being "shocked" at the scale of bloodshed and chaos that engulfed Iraq after he authorised military intervention.
In an interview on satirical news programme The Daily Show, the former Prime Minister was subjected to a grilling by host Jon Stewart about his decision to send troops to Iraq in 2003 and his enduring friendship with George Bush. Mr Blair takes on a role teaching a "faith and globalisation" course at Yale University today.

Asked if, in retrospect, the Iraq war was a strategic misjudgment, Mr Blair said: "When you go back and you look at the situation at the time and the bloodshed that there's been and the difficulty, I would have been shocked but I would have asked the question 'Why has this come about? Why has it been so hard?'

"Because after all, Saddam was removed more than five years ago but since then you've been fighting the type of battle against the same type of people that you're fighting all over that region." Referring to his position as a Middle East envoy, Mr Blair added: "I can tell you there's a fundamental struggle going on. There are two sides."

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Blair defended his decision to invade Iraq on the Emmy-winning programme, which is hugely popular among young Americans.

He said: "It came from a belief that Saddam was a threat and that after September 11 the world had changed.

"I came to it of my accord and I came to it also from a position of conviction. I don't disrespect people who take a different point of view but it's what I believe, what I believe then and it's what I believe now." ... Bliar