Tony Blair Faces Questions at Iraq Inquiry, Families of Slain Soldiers Protest Former PM

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his decision to send troops to Iraq today. He referenced September 11th and told the group assembled at the Iraq Inquiry:

"The point about this act in New York was that had they been able to kill even more people than those 3,000 they would have. And so after that time, my view was you could not take risks with this issue at all."

"From that moment Iran, Libya, North Korea, Iraq ... all of this had to be brought to an end," he said.

"The primary consideration for me was to send an absolutely powerful, clear and unremitting message that after September 11 if you were a regime engaged in WMD [weapons of mass destruction], you had to stop."

Blair's testimony was met with a protest. Families of some of the British soldiers killed in Iraq joined peace protesters outside the Iraq war inquiry, as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair grilled with questions on going to war.