Reply #27: There's a BBC Panorama vid online that somewhat explains this, enid602

[magellan]

It's the documentary from March this year. I don't have the link handy (perhaps someone else would be kind enough to provide it), but it features Robin Cook, Labour's former Foreign Secretary, who resigned over the Iraq War. He insists Blair agreed to support the US simply because it was that important to Blair to prove he was a reliable US ally, not just a good friend of Clinton.

As Cook wrote in his diary at the time: '(Blair) was patient with us, but he was firm where he saw Britain's national interests lie: "I tell you that we must steer close to America. If we don't we will lose our influence to shape what they do".' (See Transcript: The Road to War for Robin Cook's full diary on Iraq. It's a brilliant read.)

Clearly Blair made the same mistake a lot of Republicans here made: thinking these Theo-corporate demagogues cared about anyone outside their own agenda. He also erred in thinking that cozying up to Bush** would strengthen him politically at home.

Double-oops.

I think there's slightly more to it, though. I suspect Blair also understood the ramifications of sitting it out, which were made clear by Bush** numerous times: Anyone who doesn't support the war doesn't get a slice of the money pie when it comes to reconstruction.

British Petroleum probably figured highly in there somewhere. I've also heard that HSBC, a British-owned bank, was looking forward to setting up shop in Iraq, along with other major int'l corporations (many US-owned). They all got to watch their dreams of avarice turn to dust, literally, as the situation in post-invasion Iraq deteriorated through US mismanagement.

(edited to fix an html oops!)