Greenstock said the shadow of the war still hung over contemporary politics, and even the current isolationism in the UK revealed in the Brexit vote could be traced back to “the British public’s distaste for the Iraq war”. Greenstock said the Iraq episode had done immense damage to US standing. Tony Blair, Greenstock said, was constantly having to judge how much to load on to any one conversation with George W Bush for fear the door would be slammed shut. He also suggested Blair did not make sure the UK government addressed the crisis as it developed in 2004. “What I thought was structurally weak was that there was no clear political responsibility taken at an elected level below the prime minister in London,” he said.

Source: The Guardian November 01, 2016 22:00 UTC