| Page 2 of 2 < |
Blair Releases Memo Questioning Legality of Iraq War
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Until Thursday, Blair had resisted disclosing Goldsmith's paper, arguing that it was confidential legal advice. But the Channel Four report triggered a wave of articles in the British media and a confrontational news conference with Blair in the morning.
Blair insisted that Goldsmith never claimed the war would be illegal but had merely pointed out the pros and cons, as any good lawyer would. "This so-called smoking gun has turned out to be a damp squib because he did advise it was lawful to proceed," Blair said of Goldsmith's opinion. (A damp squib is a firecracker that fails to explode.)
Blair said that he agreed it would have been preferable to obtain a U.N. resolution specifically authorizing the use of force but that French President Jacques Chirac had pledged to veto it. "I worked my socks off to get the second U.N. resolution -- we didn't get it," he said.
After the effort failed, he said, he faced the choice of whether to join the United States in ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and he decided to act. Blair said that while he understood many people still oppose the decision, it was a matter of political judgment, not one of integrity or character.
Goldsmith is a Blair appointee and chief legal adviser to the government, and some commentators argued that tradition requires that his opinion should have been divulged to the entire cabinet.
Two senior cabinet secretaries, Gordon Brown and Patricia Hewitt, who appeared at the news conference with Blair, said the cabinet had not been misled about Goldsmith's position. Brown, who is Blair's chief rival within the Labor Party, said the prime minister's decision for war "was made in an honest, principled and clear way."
Conservatives disagreed. "If you can't trust Mr. Blair on the decision to take the country to war -- the most important decision a prime minister can take -- how can you trust Mr. Blair on anything else ever again?" Howard asked at a news conference.
Unlike Howard, Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, Britain's third major party, opposed the war. Though he did not accuse the prime minister of lying, he said Blair was wrong to dismiss popular reaction to the attorney general's opinion. "This is not a damp squib for those who have lost loved ones who served in the armed forces in Iraq or in terms of legitimate public opinion in this country," he said.
