Former British Premier Tony Blair was so influenced by religion that he believed God wanted him to go to war in Iraq and Kosovo to fight evil.
Former British Premier Tony Blair was so influenced by religion that he believed God wanted him to go to war in Iraq and Kosovo to fight evil, when he was in office, his mentor has claimed.
According to John Burton, one of Blair's closest political aides, the former British leader viewed his decision to go to war in Iraq and Kosovo as part of "Christian battle" against "evil".
He claimed that Blair was driven by the belief that "good should triumph over evil" and his faith had given him an unshakeable conviction that he was right, leading newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.
"It's very simple to explain the idea of Blair the Warrior. It was part of Tony living out his faith. While he was at Number 10, Tony was virtually gagged on the whole question of religion. But Tony's Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks.
"He believed strongly at the time, that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone -- Iraq too -- was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil, making lives better," Burton wrote in his upcoming book 'We Don't Do God'.
Burton, who was Blair's political agent in Sedgefield constituency for 24 years, has said that his religion gave him a "total belief in what's right and what's wrong", leading him to see the so-called War on Terror as "a moral cause".
"I truly believe that his Christianity affected his policy-making on just about everything from aid to Africa, education, poverty, world debt and intervening in other countries when he thought it was right to do it.
"The fervour was part of him and it comes back to it being Christian fervour that spurred him into action for better or worse.
"He applied that same principle in everything he did, from establishing the Social Exclusion Unit to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and ridding Iraq of the evils of Saddam Hussein's rule," he was quoted as saying.
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