To the last, Blair defends Iraq war

LONDON —  Prime Minister Tony Blair, who upended the old politics of liberalism and conservatism in Britain and pushed for an “ethical” foreign policy, said Thursday that he would step down June 27 after more than a decade in power.

Blair, 54, one of Britain’s longest-serving prime ministers, rescued the Labor Party from the electoral backwaters in 1997 on a wave of national optimism, only to see it founder over an unpopular war in Iraq.

His successor almost certainly will be Gordon Brown, the introverted, intellectual finance minister who worked side by side with Blair to create the doctrine of New Labor. The two fell out in recent years over when Brown would be allowed to have his day in the sun as prime minister.

“Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down,” Blair said in his long-awaited announcement speech, part bittersweet and part defiant.

Addressing a roomful of Labor Party members, Blair sought to underline achievements that have brought near-record prosperity to Britain and injected new life into health and education services, even as he quietly but adamantly defended his decision to send British troops to war in Iraq.

“I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right,” Blair told the supporters, who alternately cheered and wiped back tears, in his home constituency in the northeastern England district of Sedgefield.

Blair called up the image of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the decision he made, which was to prove the most fateful of his premiership, to “stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally,” the United States.

“And so Afghanistan and then Iraq, the latter bitterly controversial, and removing Saddam and his sons from power,” he said. “The blowback since from global terrorism and those elements that support it has been fierce and unrelenting and costly, and for many it simply isn’t and can’t be worth it.

“For me, I think we must see it through,” he said. “The terrorists who threaten us here and round the world will never give up if we give up. It is a test of will and of belief, and we can’t fail it.”

Only days before, Blair concluded 10 years of patient diplomacy and oversaw the induction of a new power-sharing government in Northern Ireland -- a settlement he attributed in part to a new, more prosperous, more tolerant Britain “at home in its own skin.”

“I don’t think Northern Ireland would have been changed unless Britain had changed,” he said.

Blair’s resignation announcement came at a time when the Labor Party has seen its membership drop by half since the first of his three general election victories, in 1997.

Labor’s credibility has sunk to the point that this month the party took just 27% of the vote in elections for local councils in England and the parliaments in Scotland and Wales, losing Scotland by one seat to the Scottish National Party. Labor members of parliament had seen the trouble coming, and had pushed Blair since as early as last fall to set a timetable for his departure, which some have labeled “the long goodbye.”

Deep uncertainty within the party and negotiations over Cabinet reshuffling that are sure to characterize Blair’s remaining weeks at Downing Street prompted Conservative Leader David Cameron this week to urge a rapid transition.

“This is the government of the living dead,” he said. “Why do we have to put up with even more paralysis?”

But a lengthy farewell full of last-minute policy legacies on fighting terrorism, renewing Britain’s nuclear arsenal and ending the conflict in Northern Ireland is an essential precedent for a politician seen as the consummate communicator -- surely one of the few world leaders with a YouTube channel and podcasts of his conversations on history, climate change, his “passion for science” and aid to Africa.

Indeed, Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in the French presidential election Sunday was met not just with a letter from his British counterpart, but an online video of smiling congratulations, from Blair, in French as well as English.

A baby-boomer politician, Blair ushered in an era dubbed “Cool Britannia,” having fronted a rock band at Oxford and becoming the first British prime minister since 1848 known to have had a child in office. Blair also displayed an uncanny knack for capturing the public mood while displaying an equal willingness to ignore it on issues such as Iraq.

“Your duty as prime minister is to act according to your conviction,” he said Thursday.

That Blair saw the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks as a global turning point that created an obligation on the part of like-minded nations to act was apparent in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. His remarks after the attacks were widely regarded as more forceful and eloquent than those of President Bush.

“We need to mourn the dead, and then act to protect the living,” he said at the time. “Our beliefs are the very opposite of the fanatics. We believe in reason, democracy and tolerance. These beliefs are the foundation of our civilized world.”

More than that, Blair showed he shared Bush’s belief that democratic values could be used as agents of change against repressive regimes and ancient hostilities.

“The kaleidoscope has been shaken,” Blair said in 2001. “The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us reorder this world around us.”

Even before the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent transit system bombings that killed 52 people in London in 2005, Blair had fashioned his doctrine of an “ethical foreign policy” that would give “new momentum” to arms control, work for a ban on land mines and push the environment and human rights higher on the international agenda.

Blair made the case for international intervention in Kosovo in 1999 and in Sierra Leone in 2000 to curb escalating violence.

“Tony is your classic liberal interventionist,” said Clive Solely, former chairman of the parliamentary Labor Party. “His frustration is that things like the U.N. are unable to deal with your tyrannical regimes, or failing state regimes, because there isn’t a structure for enforcement.

“His belief is if the United States and Europe do things together, they can sort the world out,” Solely said.

Blair has seen himself as a bridge between the U.S. and Europe, but he has made it clear that America, with its status as the world’s leading power, was Britain’s most important ally -- even if that meant jeopardizing relations with European neighbors, many of whom opposed the war in Iraq.

Blair’s first foreign minister, Robin Cook, resigned in protest when Britain joined the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which lacked broad international support. Other aspects of the “ethical” dimension in foreign policy began to crumble when the British government was accused of dissembling over purported evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq used to make the case for war.

There was further disillusionment late last year when Blair cited national security concerns to halt an inquiry into allegations that Britain’s BAE Systems ran a $120-million slush fund that helped it get a lucrative jet fighter contract from Saudi Arabia, a nation Blair saw as crucial to the fight against Islamic terrorists.

The support among old-guard Laborites and many in the progressive left also faltered in recent years as Blair took the party from its socialist, trade union roots to one attempting to harness private enterprise in remaking and reinvigorating public services.

He sought to change the mind-set of a staid Britain by pushing for a more dynamic society with upward mobility and a risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit.

When Labor came to power in 1997, teacher shortages and underperforming students threatened the schools. Blair, pledging to focus on “education, education and education,” succeeded in rapidly elevating test scores and created partnerships with private businesses to build popular new schools.

But teachers protested that the new schools were focusing on tests, not a well-rounded education. And with schools forced to compete for funding and students, well-to-do families often dominate the enrollment at the most desirable institutions. Many families who can afford to -- accounting for a fifth of all enrollment in London -- have abandoned the public schools.

“Tony Blair’s claim is he’s created a system that is both equitable and excellent. He would say he’s paving the way for a more inclusive, cohesive society. But I don’t think the secondary education system of which he’s so proud actually leads to that,” said Alan Smithers, an education professor at Buckingham University.

New Labor has also mobilized private enterprise to help rejuvenate the National Health Service and has succeeded in cutting waiting times for services. But it has also threatened many communities with closures of hospitals or medical departments.

“I think there’s absolutely no question they allocated much more resources to the health service, to bring us into line with the rest of Europe,” said Chris Marks, medical director of Royal County Surrey Hospital, which has been threatened with closure. “The mistake, in a way, was to not focus the money properly.”

Glenda Jackson, a Labor MP and former actress, agreed that Blair’s legacy would be decidedly mixed.

“We’ve put into place a minimum wage, we’ve taken children and pensioners out of poverty, poured money into the NHS and schools and transport. It’s all very good,” Jackson said.

“But when I was campaigning during the general elections in 2005, my enemy on the doorstep was not the Conservative Party or the Liberal Democrats, but my own prime minister. I said, ‘Look at all the good stuff we’ve done.’ The response was: ‘You’re Labor. That’s what you’re supposed to do,’ ” she said.

“The immediate reaction, once he’s gone, will be a sigh of relief,” she added.

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kim.murphy@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Life and career highlights

May 6, 1953: Born Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in Edinburgh.

1976: After studying law at St. John’s College, Oxford, is admitted to the bar. Practices until 1983, specializing in employment and industrial law.

1980: Marries Cherie Booth, also a lawyer.

1982: Runs for Parliament as the Labor candidate for Beaconsfield in the south of England, but loses.

June 1983: Enters Parliament for Sedgefield in the northeastern county of Durham.

July 1994: Elected leader of the Labor Party; begins series of party reforms.

May 1, 1997: Leads Labor to its biggest general election victory, with a 179-seat majority in Parliament, becoming the youngest prime minister since 1812.

April 10, 1998: Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern sign the Good Friday peace pact for Northern Ireland.

May 20, 2000: Cherie Blair gives birth to a son, their fourth child and the first born to a serving prime minister since 1848.

June 7, 2001: Labor wins second landslide victory with 413 of 659 seats, but on record low turnout of 59%.

March 18, 2003: House of Commons approves British support for U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Oct. 19, 2003: Blair is hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat.

May 5, 2005: Wins third successive election, but Labor’s majority is cut from 167 to 66 seats.

Nov. 9, 2005: Lawmakers hand Blair his first defeat in a Commons vote, rejecting legislation that would allow police to hold terrorism suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

April 20, 2007: Police conclude investigation of allegations that honors -- including seats in the House of Lords and knighthoods -- were offered for donations to the Labor and Conservative parties. Blair is questioned twice.

May 10, 2007: Blair says he will step down as prime minister on June 27.

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Sources: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press

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Brown’s ascension

How Gordon Brown could become prime minister:

* Britain, a constitutional monarchy, uses the parliamentary form of government, with the queen primarily playing a ceremonial role.

* The leader of the party or coalition that holds the majority in the House of Commons, Parliament’s elected lower house, becomes prime minister.

* The Labor Party currently holds the majority there, and chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown is almost certain to succeed Tony Blair as leader of the party.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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In his own words

Quotations from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decade in office:

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May 27, 1997. On global conflict:

‘Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war.’

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Aug. 31, 1997.

On the death of Princess Diana:

‘She was the people’s princess and that’s how she will stay, how she will remain in our hearts and in our memories forever.’

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Sept. 11, 2001. Following attacks on the United States:

‘This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism. We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy.’

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April 10, 2002. On Iraq:

‘Saddam Hussein’s regime is despicable, he is developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked. He is a threat to his own people and to the region and, if allowed to develop these weapons, a threat to us also.’

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May 10, 2007. On his legacy:

‘Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong, but that’s your call. But believe one thing if nothing else: I did what I thought was right for our country.’

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Source: Associated Press