Sir Christopher Meyer, then British Ambassador to the US, told the Iraq Inquiry that Mr Blair would have been more influential if he had attached pre-conditions to British support at the Crawford ranch meeting - which was six months before Hans Blix began looking for weapons in Iraq.
“I think that would have changed the nature of American planning,” he said. “By the time you get to the end of the year it’s too late. . . I did say to London that we’re being taken for granted.
“To this day I am not entirely clear what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch,” Sir Christopher said. “[But] they weren’t there to talk about containment or strengthening sanctions."
The high point of Britain’s influence on Washington amounted to “bugger all” and a stronger Prime Minister like Margaret Thatcher could have done more, he told the inquiry.
Sir Christopher told Sir John Chilcot and his five fellow panellists that the high point of Britain’s influence on the Bush Administration was encouraging President Bush to publish a road map on the Middle East but that “led to bugger all, let’s be frank”.
“We found ourselves scrabbling around for the smoking gun,” he said. “And we - the Americans, the British - have never really recovered from that because of course there was no smoking gun.”
How the hell were people stupid enough to keep voting Blair into 10 Downing Street?
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