Blair: 'I was shocked by Iraq chaos'

Tony Blair admitted on American television being "shocked" at the scale of bloodshed and chaos that engulfed Iraq after he authorised military intervention.

In an interview on satirical news programme The Daily Show, the former Prime Minister was subjected to a grilling by host Jon Stewart about his decision to send troops to Iraq in 2003 and his enduring friendship with George Bush. Mr Blair takes on a role teaching a "faith and globalisation" course at Yale University today.

Asked if, in retrospect, the Iraq war was a strategic misjudgment, Mr Blair said: "When you go back and you look at the situation at the time and the bloodshed that there's been and the difficulty, I would have been shocked but I would have asked the question 'Why has this come about? Why has it been so hard?'

"Because after all, Saddam was removed more than five years ago but since then you've been fighting the type of battle against the same type of people that you're fighting all over that region." Referring to his position as a Middle East envoy, Mr Blair added: "I can tell you there's a fundamental struggle going on. There are two sides."

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Blair defended his decision to invade Iraq on the Emmy-winning programme, which is hugely popular among young Americans.

He said: "It came from a belief that Saddam was a threat and that after September 11 the world had changed.

"I came to it of my accord and I came to it also from a position of conviction. I don't disrespect people who take a different point of view but it's what I believe, what I believe then and it's what I believe now."

He added: "At the time, and subsequently, you assess and you re-assess and you re-examine. That's why I say I never took the view that people who disagreed with it were stupid or misguided or had bad intentions ... in the end you have to take a decision and you have to come down on one side or the other and these are things that you then live with for the rest of your life and so you should."

Stewart repeatedly quizzed Mr Blair on the success of his Middle East policies, causing the former Prime Minister to snap, "None of this is easy OK." Mr Blair said "Whether it's in Yemen or Algeria or Palestine or Pakistan there's a struggle going on. There was September

11. That in my view changed everything." Stewart told him: "Your relationship-with George Bush seems inexplicable." Mr Blair responded: "Here's something that I find always goes down well particularly back home. I like him."

Mr Blair seemed to confirm that Mr Bush often rang him in the middle of the night. Asked by Stewart: "Did he [Bush] understand the time difference, or would your phone ring and it would be, like, four in the morning, and he would be, like, Tony you gotta turn on Channel 4, there's a snake eating an egg?" Mr Blair replied: "It was OK. I got used to that. It was fine."

He added of Mr Bush: "I'm not a fair weather friend. We went through a lot together and also I think it's important that my country and your country, whatever our little difficulties in the past, stick together."

Mr Blair also confessed his conversion to Catholicism, made after he stepped down last year would have been "complicated" while he was still in No 10. He also re-iterated his belief that religious extremism is the greatest challenge facing the world.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

On the invasion of Iraq

'It came from a belief that Saddam was a threat and that after September 11 the world had changed. I don't disrespect people who take a different point of view ... but it's what I believed then and it's what I believe now.'

On his relationship with Bush, who would ring him at 4am

'It was OK. I got used to that. It was fine.'

On his relationship with the US

'I'm not a fair weather friend. We went through a lot together and it's important that my country and your country, whatever our little difficulties in the past, stick together.'