Tony Blair & The Iraq War

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

March 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war, seeing US and British troops enter the country - the legalities of which are still debated today. The legacy it’s left behind includes over 1 million Iraqi deaths, thousands of troops, and a power vacuum that allowed the rise to power of terrorist organisation, ISIS. So how did the United Kingdom end up embroiled in a so called ‘Illegal War’, and was there anything that could’ve been done to prevent it?

In the first episode of our March mini-series, reflecting back on the Iraq war, James is joined by Dr James Strong to examine Tony Blair and the UK Government’s involvement in the middle east. Looking at the series of events paving the way for the invasion, inaccurate MI6 information, and the role the so called ‘Special Relationship’ played - it asks the question, why was Blair so desperate to get into Iraq, and what legacy has he left behind?

This episode was produced by Annie Coloe. The editors were Tomos Delargy and Aidan Lonergan.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Former British Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, has admitted that he may have been wrong about the decision to invade Iraq,
0:07.0	but insisted he thought it was the right thing to do.
0:10.0	That fateful decision in 2003 set forward a set of events that would topple a dictator
0:16.0	Saddam Hussein leading to his execution, but also the implosion of a nation and the war-related
0:21.9	deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
0:25.9	So how did Sir Tony get Britain embroiled in Iraq?
0:29.6	Well, I'm your host James Patton Rogers and to take us through this controversial history we have
0:34.1	James Strong on the podcast. James is an expert in British foreign policy at Queen
0:40.0	Mary University in London and the author of public opinion, legitimacy and Tony Blair's
0:45.7	war in Iraq. Together we explore this history and the lasting impact of Blair's decision to
0:52.3	take Britain to war.
0:56.0	Hi James, welcome to warfare.
0:58.0	How are you doing?
0:59.0	Hi James, I'm very good. Thank you very much.
1:01.0	I'm very pleased to be here.
1:02.0	Thanks for having me on.
1:03.2	Well it's great to have you on the podcast as part of our special series marking 20 years, almost unbelievably
1:10.0	20 years since the Iraq War. Does it make you feel old James?
1:14.4	It marks 20 years since I sat my A-levels, so that's also a factor that I find deeply, deeply uncomfortable.
1:21.2	It was an interesting time to be doing a-level politics, but I'd prefer it if it wasn't
1:26.0	20 years that's passed in the meantime, if I'm totally honest.
1:28.9	See that's interesting though. Was it the Iraq war that got you interested in politics?
	...

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