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Blair: Job 'on the line' over Iraq
LONDON, England -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair was prepared to resign if his own political party opposed his decision to join the U.S.-led war against Iraq, according to an interview published Friday. Blair, who faced a parliamentary revolt by members of the Labour Party, told The Sun newspaper that he had warned his family and staff that the issue could cost him his job. "In the end, it is a decision you put the whole of your premiership on the line for," the PM said in the interview. "But the point is that some people are actually going to go and die as a result of your decision... In the end, if you lose your premiership, well, you lose it." Blair also told the tabloid paper that he had been concerned in the early days of the war that stronger-than-expected resistance from Iraqi forces was slowing the U.S. and British advance. "There were moments when it looked like we were getting bogged down, and 10 days in you were worried about how long this was going to go. Had we miscalculated the degree of the depth of resistance?'' he said.
Blair's strong support for war, which prompted massive street demonstrations throughout the country, was one of the toughest challenges of his six years in office. In the end, he won his party's backing for war -- despite the opposition of many Labour members and the Liberal Democrat party. The leader of the opposition Conservative Party Iain Duncan Smith supported the government. But the decision also resulted in the resignations of several ministers -- among them, Robin Cook, the leader of the House of Commons and former foreign secretary. Blair told The Sun that before the parliamentary vote he had warned his children that his job was on the line. "I did sit down with them at one point and I explained that this was going to be extremely difficult and it was possible the thing could go against me,'' he said. "They were really supportive, all the family." But Blair said the debate over the war was "exhausting and stressful." "I found it very frustrating and at time extraordinary that there were so many people against something that seemed to me in principle so obviously right," he said. "Once I had made what I thought was the right decision, I never lost any sleep over all the hassle and the abuse and the disagreement and the wrangling." Although public backing for war rose in Britain after the fighting started, Blair said he was still concerned about the outcome until he saw television reports of U.S. troops being welcomed in Baghdad. The PM said he was delighted to watch a statue of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein being topple in the center of Iraq's capital city. "It was great," he said. "I was delighted and I was relieved."
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I never lost any sleep over all the hassle and the abuse and the disagreement and the wrangling.
