Britain Supports Post-Sept. 11 America, Enters the Iraq War

Britain became the staunchest ally of the U.S. after the Sept. 11
attacks. British troops joined the U.S. in the bombing campaign against
Afghanistan in Oct. 2001, after the Taliban-led government refused to turn
over the prime suspect in the terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden.

Blair again proved himself to be the strongest international supporter
of the U.S. in Sept. 2002, becoming President Bush's major ally in calling
for a war against Iraq. Blair maintained that military action was
justified because Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction that
were a direct threat. He supported the Bush administration's hawkish
policies despite significant opposition in his own party and the British
public. In March 2003, a London
Times
newspaper poll indicated that
only 19% of respondents approved of military action without a UN mandate.
As the inevitability of the U.S. strike on Iraq grew nearer, Blair
announced that he would join the U.S. in fighting Iraq with or without a
second UN resolution. Three of his ministers resigned as a result. Britain
entered the war on March 20, supplying 45,000 troops.

In the aftermath of the war, Blair came under fire from government
officials for allegedly exaggerating Iraq's possession of weapons of mass
destruction. In July 2003, Blair announced that “history would
forgive” the UK and U.S. “if we are wrong” and that the
end to the “inhuman carnage and suffering” caused by Saddam
Hussein was justification enough for the war. The arguments about the war
grew so vociferous between the Blair government and the BBC that a
prominent weapons scientist, David Kelly, who was caught in the middle,
committed suicide. In Jan. 2004, the Hutton Report asserted that the Blair
administration had not “sexed-up” the intelligence dossier, an
accusation put forth by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan. The report strongly
criticized the BBC for its “defective” editorial policies, and
as a consequence, the BBC's top management resigned. In July 2004, the
Butler Report on pre–Iraq war British intelligence was released. It
echoed the findings of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee of the week
before that the intelligence had vastly exaggerated Saddam Hussein's
threat. The famous claim that Iraq's chemical and biological weapons
“are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them” was
especially singled out as highly misleading. But like the U.S. report, it
cleared the government of any role in manipulating the intelligence.

On May 5, 2005, Blair won a historic third term as the country's prime
minister. Despite this victory, Blair's party was severely hurt in the
elections. The Labour Party won just 36% of the national vote, the lowest
percentage by a ruling party in British history. The Conservative Party
won 33%, and the Liberal Democrats 22%. Blair acknowledged that the reason
for the poor showing was Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq.