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Tony-Blair-main_article_image.jpg
Chatham House
UK News

Report claims Blair's Christian faith influenced Iraq War decision

by Aaron James

Theos has published an essay entitled 'The Mighty and the Almighty Blair' as the long-awaited Chilcot Inquiry into Tony Blair's decisions before, during and after the Iraq War is published.

The report saw Sir John Chilcot speak to more than 100 witnesses and assess more than 150,000 government documents regarding how and why Britain came to the decision to go to war in Iraq.

It took more than seven years to publish - something which has been heavily criticised by both MPs and the families of soldiers who died in the Iraq War.

The decision to go to war was voted through by a Commons majority however many have said it was an illegal war which did not follow international conventions and therefore Tony Blair and George Bush should be punished.

Tony Blair has said while he does not regret overthrowing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, he regrets how his intelligence services misinformed him on the presence of weapons of mass destruction and how sectarian violence has gripped the country since the invasion.

It's unclear whether the report will recommend any form of punishments or whether it will be able to provide a legal basis for civil cases or criminal prosecutions.

179 Britons died in the Iraq War and its aftermath while it's estimated between 90,000 and 600,000 Iraqis were killed, some of them civilians.

Speaking to Premier, Nick Spencer, from Theos, said: "I think he [Tony Blair] probably would've said right was on his side and that, as a politician powered by Christian convictions, it was his duty to follow the right - almost irrespective of the cost.

"His religion, his Christianity, and therefore to some extent his politics, was quite interventionist. He thought that we live as people in community, and you see somebody else in that community suffering, it's therefore your duty to intervene.

"They [Blair and Bush] found themselves leading countries at an intense moment of geopolitical insecurity and they both felt they had some moral right to rectify that.

"You don't need to be a Christian for that, but it might have helped them."

Details of the Chilcott Inquiry will be released on Wednesday morning.

Listen to Premier's Aaron James speaking to Nick Spencer:

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