Explosive: A new book – based on exclusive interviews with military chiefs, civil servants and Cabinet ministers – reveals Mr Blair decided early in 2002 on the need for ‘regime change’ to tackle Saddam Hussein

The devastating truth about how Tony Blair’s ‘deceit’ over Iraq cost British troops their lives is laid bare today.

An explosive new book – based on exclusive interviews with military chiefs, civil servants and Cabinet ministers – reveals Mr Blair decided early in 2002 on the need for ‘regime change’ to tackle Saddam Hussein.

But he froze out, or kept in the dark, his Chief of Defence Staff, Cabinet Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Defence Secretary and most of the Cabinet.

The former Prime Minister’s deception means the military were refused permission to begin proper planning because he was pretending to be an ‘honest broker’ seeking a peaceful solution.

As a result, British soldiers died because of a lack of sufficient body armour and equipment when the war began. The Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Mike Boyce, warned the then PM that his position was ‘crazy’, but Mr Blair told him: ‘Well, that’s how it is.’

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon also appealed to Mr Blair, saying: ‘We need to order machine-guns, body armour and other equipment.’

‘No,’ he replied. ‘I’ve got to keep the UN negotiations [with Saddam over allowing weapons inspectors to enter Iraq] going and I can’t act as (an) honest broker if it’s clear we’re planning to go to war.’

The extraordinary story of how Mr Blair dragged Britain to war in Iraq is detailed in a biography by acclaimed investigative journalist Tom Bower, serialised in the Mail this week. It will heap further pressure on Sir John Chilcot, whose own inquiry into Iraq is yet to be published – six years after it began.

Bower’s biography, Broken Vows, reveals how, in the build-up to war, Mr Blair:

Excluded top officials at the MoD from key meetings – depriving the Government of the department’s decades of expertise;

Kept his plans hidden from most of his Cabinet and senior civil servants because he did not want his true intentions to leak out;

Ignored pleas to make proper plans for post-war Iraq, saying ‘the Americans have it all sewn up’

Tried to get rid of Admiral Boyce on the eve of war but was forced to back down;

Brushed aside warnings from the military that Iraq could turn into a Vietnam-style catastrophe;

Told MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove to bring raw intelligence straight to him as he tried to bolster the case for regime change;

Told Sir Richard, who helped compile the notorious ‘dodgy dossier’ on Saddam’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction: ‘Richard, my fate is in your hands.’

Bower’s account is the most comprehensive ever written of Mr Blair’s conduct in the build-up to a war which cost the lives of 179 British troops. It tells how repeated requests by Cabinet ministers for papers on Iraq were ignored.

Terrifying: British soldier prepares to jump from a burning tank which was set ablaze after a shooting incident in Basra

Crucially, it comes ahead of the Chilcot report which – to the fury of grieving relatives – has yet to be released, despite beginning work in 2009.

Bower reveals that, within hours of the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001, an excited Mr Blair told ministers and officials: ‘We shall support America in anything they do.’

In November 2001, Mr Blair – now a multi-millionaire – was already asking Whitehall aides to produce a policy paper on Iraq, sowing the seeds for invasion. In March 2002, Mr Blair’s adviser David Manning briefed the British Ambassador in Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, that the then PM favoured ‘regime change’ – and failure wasn’t an option.

Yet, at a Cabinet meeting on March 7, Mr Blair spoke only of bombing Iraq.

Andrew Turnbull, who was about to take over as Cabinet Secretary, said: ‘I wouldn’t call it a lie. “Deception” is the right word. You can deceive without lying, by leaving a false interpretation uncorrected.’

In July 2002, Mr Blair also denied to Parliament that any decision had been taken. But in private, he had committed Britain to war, Bower writes.

In September 2002, Mr Blair wrote a note ahead of a telephone conversation with President Bush which said: ‘We will be with you come what may.’

Mr Manning told him: ‘You can’t say that because you’re committing the British Army to an invasion which no one else knows about.’ Mr Blair was unmoved.

Most catastrophic was his decision not to allow the military to begin planning for invasion. Bower points out that British soldiers would later die because of the lack of body armour.

Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in June 2004, said: ‘This is further evidence of what we have said all along – that Blair lied to us from the start and it cost our sons and daughters their lives.

Inquiry: Tony Blair, addressing the Chilcott Inquiry, where the former PM explained his reasons for the invasion

‘He was so desperate to go to war that it meant many of our troops didn’t have the correct kit. It is disgusting.’

Another shocking insight concerns a meeting in mid-November 2002, when three Middle East experts were invited to No 10 to describe what would happen if Saddam fell. Mr Blair told them: ‘Don’t tell us not to invade, because we must and will.’

The Government finally went public with its plans in January 2003 when Mr Hoon announced that 26,000 troops and a fleet were being sent to the Middle East. The invasion began barely two months later.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said last night: ‘None of these allegations are new.

‘All were extensively covered and rebutted in evidence to the various inquiries. This is simply an attempt to twist the facts to fit the author’s pre-determined agenda.’

Chris Casey

Lance Sergeant Casey, 27, pictured with wife Tanya, was killed when his Snatch Land Rover was blown up by a roadside

bomb in August 2007. Ministers had ignored pleas by military chiefs to axe the poorly protected vehicles – nicknamed ‘mobile coffins’ because of their vulnerability.





Steven Roberts

A shortage of body armour was blamed for the death of Sergeant Roberts, 33, who was the first British soldier killed in action in Iraq in March 2003.

Sgt Roberts, a tank commander, was shot dead after his commanding officer ordered him to hand his body armour to a colleague.

Russell Aston

Corporal Aston, 30, was one of six Red Caps murdered by a mob at a police station in Majar al Kabir, near Basra, in 2003.

The Royal Military Policemen were cornered by hundreds of locals and executed.

Their killers have never been brought to justice.

An inquest heard evidence that the soldiers had too little ammunition, old radios and no satellite phone to summon help when they were ambushed.





Gordon Gentle