Blair Defends Iraq ‘Nightmare’ as He Says He Wept for the Dead

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was right to invade Iraq, even taking into account “the nightmare that unfolded” there, and recounted that he wept on meeting one British soldier’s widow.

“On the basis of what we do know now, I still believe that leaving Saddam in power was a bigger risk to our security than removing him,” Blair wrote in his memoir, “A Journey,” published by Random House today. Of his critics, he said, “Do they really suppose I don’t care, don’t feel, don’t regret with every fiber of my being the loss of those who died? Tears, though there have been many, do not encompass it.”