By Peter Wilson | The Australian | September 02, 2010

… In a chilling insight into the mood of the Bush White House, Blair says vice-president Dick Cheney “would have worked through the whole lot, Iraq, Syria, Iran, dealing with all their surrogates in the course of it — Hezbollah, Hamas, etc…

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War on terror will last a generation, warns Tony Blair

The Metro | September 1, 2010

… On his decision to send troops into Iraq, he urged critics to ‘keep an open mind’. ‘Because we are about to face, in respect of Iran, a very similar decision,’ he said.

‘I would never, not on my watch, if I had anything to do with it, allow Iran to get nuclear weapons capability.

‘There is not a single part of the Middle East that is not touched by exactly the same problem as we have in Iraq and Afghanistan today and my view is the West has got to understand this is a generation-long struggle and we’ve got to be in it.’ …

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Blair’s Book Reveals ‘Tears’ but No Regrets on Iraq

By JOHN F. BURNS | New York Times | September 1, 2010

“I can’t regret the decision to go to war,” he says. “I can say that never did I guess the nightmare that unfolded, and that, too, is part of the responsibility. The truth is, we did not anticipate the role of Al Qaeda or Iran. Whether we should have is another matter; and, if we had anticipated, what we would have done about it is another matter again.”

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Tony Blair: West should use force if Iran ‘continues to develop nuclear weapons’

Mark Tran | The Guardian | September 1, 2010

… In his exclusive interview with the Guardian, Blair elaborates on why it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons, linking this to the 9/11 attacks on the US. The former prime minister wishes he had seen earlier that 9/11 had “far deeper roots” than he thought at the time.

“The reason for that, let me explain it, is that in my view what was shocking about September 11 was that it was 3,000 people killed in one day but it would have been 300,000 if they could have done it,” Blair said, appearing to equate al-Qaida with Iran. “That’s the point … I decided at that point that you cannot take a risk on this. This is why I am afraid, in relation to Iran, that I would not take a risk of them getting nuclear weapons capability. I wouldn’t take it…

Submitted by Aletho News on Thu, 2010-09-02 17:24

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