Guardian-Blair refused three offers to stay out of Iraq (Woodward's book) [View All]

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4904522-103550,00.html

Blair refused three offers to stay out of Iraq
Book says Bush was concerned at PM's plight

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Monday April 19, 2004
The Guardian

Eleven days before the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair was given three chances by President George Bush to keep British troops out of the war at no political cost, but refused, according to a book published today.

An impressively sourced account of the run-up to the war - Plan of Attack by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward - depicts a president acutely conscious of the political cost to Mr Blair of tying his fortunes so closely to Washington's policy on Iraq.

On the day of Mr Bush's offer - March 9, 2003 - Tony Blair faced a rebellion by Labour MPs opposed to the war, and it was becoming increasingly clear that the United Nations would not produce the international sanction for the war that was so important to Mr Blair's credibility at home.

Mr Blair's government and his political career were in peril, and the White House evidently believed they owed their ally a favour. Mr Blair had repeatedly proven his loyalty to the administration and, as it emerges in the book, had been on board for war on Iraq for months - even while professing in public to be committed to the use of UN weapons inspections to disarm Saddam Hussein.

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