Dick Cheney autobiography heaps praise on Tony Blair

Dick Cheney, vice-president to George W Bush, pays tribute to ‘one of America’s closest and best allies in the war on terror’ He may or may not welcome it, but Tony Blair has had lavish praise heaped on him by the uber-conservative of US politics, Dick Cheney. In his autobiography published on Tuesday, the self-declared Darth Vader of the Bush administration pays tribute to the former Labour leader. Not only was Blair America’s greatest ally during the Bush years, says Cheney, but his speeches about the “war on terror” were some of the most eloquent he had been privileged to hear. George Bush’s friendship and closeness to Blair have been well documented, but the position of his vice-president, who earned a reputation for secretiveness while at the White House, has been less clear until now. In the 565-page In My Time, Cheney is unrepentant about the most controversial decisions taken by the White House, from the waterboarding of Guantánamo Bay detainees to the invasion of Iraq. Recalling a trip to Europe in March 2002, a year before the invasion of Iraq, Cheney says: “I began my trip with a stop in London to visit one of America’s closest and best allies in the war on terror, British prime minister Tony Blair. I have tremendous respect for Prime Minister Blair,” Cheney writes. “He is a Labour party liberal and I am a conservative Republican, and we didn’t always agree on strategy or tactics. But America had no greater ally during our time in office. His speeches about the war were some of the most eloquent I’ve been privileged to hear.” Meeting at Downing Street, Cheney, an early advocate of invading Iraq, said a decision had not yet been made, but invasion was on his mind: “The president wanted to be absolutely clear that if he decided to go to war, we would finish the job. We would remove Saddam Hussein, eliminate the threat he posed and establish a representative government.” The vice-president even made phone calls to lobby Tory MPs on Blair’s behalf. On the eve of the crucial Commons vote in 2003 that authorised the war in Iraq, he writes: “At the request of the British, I

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