Date published: 2006/03/04
The BBC says:
Anti-war campaigners have criticised Tony Blair after he suggested his decision to go to war in Iraq would ultimately be judged by God.
The prime minister told ITV1's Parkinson chat show: "If you believe in God (the judgement) is made by God."
Reg Keys, whose son was killed in Iraq, said Mr Blair was "using God as a get-out for total strategic failure" and his comments were "abhorrent".
But Labour MP Stephen Pound praised Mr Blair for being "painfully honest".
Mr Blair told Michael Parkinson, in an interview being screened on Saturday, how he had struggled with his conscience when making decisions about a potential war in Iraq.
"When you're faced with a decision like that, and some of those decisions have been very, very difficult, most of all because you know... there are people's lives... and, in some case, their death," he said.
"The only way you can take a decision like that is to try to do the right thing according to your conscience."
He said: "I think if you have faith about these things, then you realise that that judgement is made by other people... and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."
When asked if he had prayed to God on the matter, he replied: "I don't want to go into that... you struggle with your own conscience about it... in the end, you do what you think is the right thing."
Well Blair would have been remembered as a great prime minister except for his terrible decision making over Iraq. But the furore these remarks seem to have caused is ridiculous. It's not as if Blair is claiming that God told him to attack Iraq, or that God has authorised the invasion of Iraq, or that God is on the side of the invading forces (things you could quite easily imagine Bush saying).
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