Letters: Blair has no need to apologise over Iraq

And these cannot just cover poor planning and tactical mistakes (sending too few troops, destroying too much infrastructure, neglecting to secure armouries and borders, disbanding the Iraqi army).

No, Mr Blair must be made to "regret" sending a volunteer army to help oust a genocidal, WMD-ambitious despot who had bombed and invaded his neighbours; repressed, tortured and gassed his opponents; harboured terrorists; sponsored suicide bombers; stoked ethnic hatred and extreme Islamist and anti-western sentiment; torched oilfields; destroyed marshlands; wrecked his country's economy; ignored UN resolutions; duped, bribed and expelled weapons inspectors; and provoked sanctions that killed 100,000 innocent Iraqis annually.

Regrets and apologies about the length and bloodiness of the war just will not do. Isn't Mr Blair now "sorry" he ever thought it the lesser evil to try and replace blood-soaked tyranny with fledgling democracy?

KEITH GILMOUR

Netherton Gate

Glasgow

I HADN'T any respect for either of the political odd couple, Blair and Brown, and good riddance to both. But if the latter keeps his peace and doesn't respond in kind to his former boss's accusations then I may respect him for that.

DOUGLAS BAIN

Oxgangs Drive

Edinburgh

Arguably Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq was an "unpardonable folly" (Comment, 2 September). But it is understandable and explicable if we accept that moral ideas are not "free floating" but socially and economically determined.

Isn't the Gulf region of strategic importance as an indispensable supplier for oil for western democracies?

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie

No new revelations of any significance, just confirmation of what we all knew: Gordon Brown and Tony Blair didn't get on. So why the media frenzy over the publication of Blair's memoirs?

The real media story of those memoirs should have been the glaring omission of an apology to all who paid the ultimate price for Mr Blair's illegal war, his lasting legacy.

Catriona C Clark

Hawthorn Drive

Banknock, Falkirk

Alexander McKay (Letters, 2 September) claims Tony Blair is feared and hated by the SNP in Scotland.

On the contrary, by Blair's own admission, his remaining as Prime Minister helped the election of the first SNP administration. As it has recently been revealed that he lied to the public, saying that devolution was the only way to save the UK and privately believing otherwise, he will no doubt spin otherwise.

Luckily for Scotland, this spin has worked out, unlike in Iraq, where it has cost thousands of Iraqi and British lives.

William Pirrie

Fairspark Terrace

Bo'ness, West Lothian