Tony Blair defends sending notorious ‘I can be with you, no matter’ word to George Bush earlier than Iraq struggle

In Sir Keir Starmer‘s speech on Sunday after the US-Israeli attack on Iran, he insisted: ‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq. And we have learned those lessons.’

But former prime minister Sir Tony Blair has told a new documentary that he stands by his infamous note to George W Bush, which said: ‘I will be with you, whatever.’

The memo, first declassified in 2016, confirmed Sir Tony had committed himself in writing to backing the then-US president eight months before the Iraq invasion.

Sir Tony wrote to Mr Bush in July 2002 after a crunch meeting at the latter’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, that April, also saying ‘getting rid of Saddam is the right thing to do’.

Now, Sir Tony has told a Channel 4 programme that he was trying to ‘rally the world’ at the time of the note, well before Parliament approved military action in March 2003.

It comes as debate intensifies around intervention in the Middle East and the ‘Special Relationship’ – although Sir Tony was speaking before the new Iran conflict began.

Speaking in ‘The Tony Blair Story’, the ex-Labour leader was asked about the letter and said: ‘You know people just put far too much emphasis on the precise wording.’

Director Michael Waldman pressed him, saying: ‘Hang on, you’re a lawyer. You know the importance of words.’ Sir Tony replied: ‘Of course, the importance of words’

Mr Waldman asked: ‘But didn’t that commit you to a slippery slope that you couldn’t get off?’ But Sir Tony responded: ‘No. Of course not. I was actually trying to persuade the Americans to do something different. I wanted us to go through a UN process. 

‘I wanted to try and rally the world as far as possible. I thought it was possible that we might get Saddam to agree to the conditions that we wanted, and I knew it was important that President Bush felt I was with him on the essential issue.’

Mr Waldman questioned Sir Tony over whether there would have been anything the Americans had proposed or done that would have made him withdraw this support.

Sir Tony said: ‘Well, if they hadn’t gone through the UN process it would have been extremely difficult for us, but they did. Was that a commitment that we were going to do whatever the Americans wanted? Of course not. But I was going to be with them in dealing with Saddam because I believed that was necessary, and I still do.’

However, then-foreign secretary Jack Straw described Sir Tony’s note as ‘not his best moment’, adding: ‘I don’t know quite to this day why he sent it.’

Mr Straw told the programme: ‘The ambiguity in his relationships which could be brilliantly used to good effect, as he did over the Good Friday Agreement, could also lead people to drawing from what he was saying, what they wanted to hear.

‘And my anxiety was that this would be seen as a kind of blank cheque by the United States, and that the consequence of that would be that our leverage would be reduced.’

Sir Tony also set out why he felt the need to support US action against Saddam Hussein, in what was the UK’s most controversial military engagement since the end of the Second World War.

He said: ‘Only that regime had actually used weapons of mass destruction and the link for the US was, these terrorist groups, if they managed to get hold of weapons of mass destruction then, instead of 3,000 people dying, it’ll be 30,000 or 300,000 and therefore we’ve got to deal with this issue…

‘And so much has been written and talked about it, but it really did start with that. And for me there were two considerations. One, was it better to leave Saddam or remove him? For the security of the world. And number two, be with America or not?’

Sir Tony’s official spokesperson Tom Kelly then explained how Mr Bush had other potential reasons for going after Hussein.

Mr Kelly said: ‘For George (W) Bush, Iraq was not just a global issue, but a personal issue because they’d tried to kill his father. And George Bush is someone who holds a grudge, takes things personally, and puts an awful lot of weight on personal relationships.

‘The Prime Minister recognised that and therefore the best strategy in influencing President Bush’s response was be seen to be supportive to President Bush.’

Before the military action, some of those in Sir Tony’s team were warning him not to act in Iraq without the support of the United Nations.

His cabinet secretary Richard Wilson told the programme: ‘His commitment to America and to being with America was much stronger than I had understood.’

Baron Wilson said he went to see Sir Tony and told him: ‘I am very worried about what you’re doing in Iraq. My advice to you is you should only go into Iraq if you have evidence of the weapons and support of the United Nations.’

Sir Tony then persuaded Mr Bush the UN to give Hussein an ultimatum over his weapons of mass destruction, while also viewing MI6 intelligence suggesting the dictator did have WMDs.

Sir Tony then asked his communications director Alastair Campbell to go to the intelligence services to help them present their evidence.

Mr Waldman asked Mr Campbell in the programme about criticism that ‘it was presented with a certainty that it didn’t warrant’.

And Mr Campbell replied: ‘I understand lots of people made that criticism. What some people in the intelligence community will say is that you can never be certain. But I would argue there was an ultra-caution to the whole thing.’

However, broadcaster Andrew Neil also spoke to the show and said: ‘To have the chief spin doctor of a government helping to edit and tinker with an intelligence dossier, I think it’s just beyond the pale.

‘The whole Blairite obsession with spin, of which Alastair Campbell was the prima donna, led to a dossier that was false, hyped up and inaccurate.’

But Mr Campbell said: ‘Yes, you can set it against what’s followed and the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction programme, and say “well, that was bulls**t”.

‘But based upon the intelligence and the assessment of intelligence that was going into that document, I certainly don’t accept the charge of deception, and I don’t accept even that we exaggerated.’

The ‘I will be with you, whatever’ note was first revealed in the Chilcot inquiry in July 2016, which also concluded that the case for war was presented with ‘a certainty which was not justified’.

The inquiry’s report claimed the case was based on ‘flawed’ intelligence about the country’s supposed WMDs which was not challenged as it should have been.

And it said the US-led coalition resorted to force to remove Hussein before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted and in a way which undermined the authority of the UN Security Council.

In total, 179 British troops died in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. Around 4,500 US service members were killed.

The Tony Blair Story is available to stream on Channel 4