Gordon Brown Stands By Blair

In the midst of the UK’s Iraq Inquiry, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is defending the government’s decision to go to war in Iraq, saying, “I think it was the right decision and made for the right reasons.” A chancellor when the decision was made, Brown insisted that former Prime Minister Tony Blair did not withhold information at the time and referred to Iraq as a “rogue state” that “had to be dealt with.” With the UK’s general election looming Brown also defended the financial decisions made in spite of recent accusations by the former Chief of Defence of Brown’s government “not fully funding in the way that they had asked” which “undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers.” Brown did express at the reconstruction efforts and told the inquiry, “It was one of my regrets that I wasn’t able to be more successful in pushing the Americans on this issue--that the planning for reconstruction was essential, just the same as planning for the war.”