Former British minister Clare Short accused PM Tony Blair on Thursday of making political mistakes over Iraq and failing to prepare for the aftermath of war. Her remarks, the latest in a series of attacks on her former boss, came as Blair prepares a key speech on security and war in the Gulf.Short returned to the fray in Catholic journal The Tablet on Thursday. ‘‘The deceit on the road to war and the deliberate marginalisation of the UN led to an unforgivable failure to prepare for the aftermath of the inevitable speedy victory,’’ said Short.‘‘The mistakes in Iraq were political — not intelligence mistakes,’’ she wrote, arguing the US set a date for war with which Britain went along. Short said while it was clear Iraq had obstructed and deceived UN inspectors, ‘‘the view was that we needed to deal with Iraq, but there was no immediate danger’’. But Blair, speaking after a meeting in Rome with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi, said the recent surge in violence in Iraq did not constitute civil war.Faced with a failure to find WMDs in Iraq, Blair has sought to broaden the argument for war and his official spokesman acknowledged on Thursday there was no chance of the issue being buried soon. — (Reuters)
