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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Caroline Davies

Advisers urged Tony Blair to rein in George W Bush over Iraq war ‘mission from God’

Tony Blair, left, with George W Bush in 2004
Tony Blair, left, with George W Bush at the White House in April 2004. Blair was asked to deliver a ‘dose of reality’ after Bush demanded US forces ‘kick ass’ in Falluja after four private military contractors were killed. Photograph: Joe Marquette/EPA

Tony Blair’s advisers privately questioned if the US had “proper political control” of military operations in Iraq after a senior US official confided that George W Bush believed he was on a “mission from God” against Iraqi insurgents, newly released documents reveal.

Blair needed to “deliver some difficult messages” to the then US president for a “more measured approach” in April 2004, following a US military operation to suppress a major uprising in the city of Falluja, according to papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London.

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