Blair defends Iraq

New York magazine asks Blair if he regrets the decision to invade Iraq.

“I don’t think the region would be more stable if Saddam and his two sons were still running around.”

Even if you grant that the Iraq war hasn't destabilised the region, strengthened Iran etc, there is also the question of the half a million who might still be alive, and the justifiable grievance their families now nurse towards the US and its allies.

“Yeah, but you’ve got to ask who killed them. There’s also a lot of people who died and who would have died under Saddam."

This is about as eloquent as any defence of the Iraq war gets: yes half a million people died but they might have died anyway. And that's Blair, too. Imagine what Bush's answers would be like.