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Blair 'cried for Iraq' but has no regrets
Source: Agencies |
September 2, 2010, Thursday
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TONY Blair regrets banning fox hunting, but not invading Iraq. He was captivated by Princess Diana, intimidated by Queen Elizabeth. He heaps praise on former US President George W. Bush but calls his close colleague Gordon Brown a man of "zero" emotional intelligence.
Blair's memoir, "A Journey," which hit the bookstores yesterday, recounts his voyage from political neophyte to youthful prime minister to admired, and then reviled, statesman.
Iraq is his most divisive legacy, but Blair says he is not sorry for his decision to enter the war - although he wept for its victims.
"I regret with every fibre of my being the loss of those who died," Blair writes.
Blair, 57, stepped down in June 2007 after a decade that included a historic peace accord in Northern Ireland, the deeply unpopular war in Iraq and the continuing conflict in Afghanistan.
For many Americans, he remains a valued ally who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the US in the fight against terrorism.
In Britain, swept to power in 1997 on a wave of popular enthusiasm, Blair left office a decade later condemned by many over Iraq and viewed as a liability by much of his own Labour Party.
"A Journey" gives a strong defense of his policies. One of the few Blair says he regrets is the ban on fox hunting. "I didn't feel how, for fox hunters, this was part of their way of life," he says.
On Gordon Brown, who succeeded him as prime minister, Blair writes: "Gordon is a strange guy, strong, capable and brilliant," but also "difficult, at times maddening."
"Political calculation, yes. Political feelings, no. Analytical intelligence, absolutely. Emotional intelligence, zero."
In contrast, former US President George W. Bush is praised as intelligent, a friend and "a true idealist."
Blair recounts awkward interactions with the queen after Diana's death. Blair said he tried to get the queen to make a public statement and worried that she found him "presumptuous."
Diana was easier to get along with, an "extraordinarily captivating" woman.
Elsewhere, Blair speaks of his relationship with alcohol, saying he drank a whisky or a gin and tonic before dinner, and a "couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it."
"I had a limit," he says." But I was aware it had become a prop."
Blair's memoir, "A Journey," which hit the bookstores yesterday, recounts his voyage from political neophyte to youthful prime minister to admired, and then reviled, statesman.
Iraq is his most divisive legacy, but Blair says he is not sorry for his decision to enter the war - although he wept for its victims.
"I regret with every fibre of my being the loss of those who died," Blair writes.
Blair, 57, stepped down in June 2007 after a decade that included a historic peace accord in Northern Ireland, the deeply unpopular war in Iraq and the continuing conflict in Afghanistan.
For many Americans, he remains a valued ally who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the US in the fight against terrorism.
In Britain, swept to power in 1997 on a wave of popular enthusiasm, Blair left office a decade later condemned by many over Iraq and viewed as a liability by much of his own Labour Party.
"A Journey" gives a strong defense of his policies. One of the few Blair says he regrets is the ban on fox hunting. "I didn't feel how, for fox hunters, this was part of their way of life," he says.
On Gordon Brown, who succeeded him as prime minister, Blair writes: "Gordon is a strange guy, strong, capable and brilliant," but also "difficult, at times maddening."
"Political calculation, yes. Political feelings, no. Analytical intelligence, absolutely. Emotional intelligence, zero."
In contrast, former US President George W. Bush is praised as intelligent, a friend and "a true idealist."
Blair recounts awkward interactions with the queen after Diana's death. Blair said he tried to get the queen to make a public statement and worried that she found him "presumptuous."
Diana was easier to get along with, an "extraordinarily captivating" woman.
Elsewhere, Blair speaks of his relationship with alcohol, saying he drank a whisky or a gin and tonic before dinner, and a "couple of glasses of wine or even half a bottle with it."
"I had a limit," he says." But I was aware it had become a prop."
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