why did tony blair start a war with iraq?

oil and money

and being swindled by Bush

why did tony blair start a war with iraq?

oil and money.
and was not swindled by Bush.

hm I dunno I have always seen Bush as the main instigator here

I think Blair just got conned by the whole "let's make it safe" issue

But I agree both are criminals, there was a lack of research and thought in to the whole thing

There was never an issue of safety in my opinion.
It was an oil war in order to put a puppet government there to "buy" the oil for peanuts.
Same thing in Libya
Both states are now unstable

But I agree both are criminals, there was a lack of research and thought in to the whole thing

I am not quite sure what the strict definition of war criminal is in this case, but for a bit of context, don't forget that the Allies were well and truly on the back foot having just dealt with the worst terrorist attack on Western soil. I am not defending either of them - I have always thought the whole thing was a horrendous mess and a complete botched job, but you can't really look at the Iraq war without looking at the bigger picture.

There were hawks in the US baying for blood and Blair was keen to be part of the "special" friendship we have with the US.

Very true, there were more people involved in this but these two were responsible, unfortunately whatever the reasons they did cause the unnessary deaths of ~180 people so I see that behaviour as criminal

In any other industry if 180 died under you leadership you'd have your career ruined / maybe prison

why did tony blair start a war with iraq?

Very true, there were more people involved in this but these two were responsible, unfortunately whatever the reasons they did cause the unnessary deaths of ~180 people so I see that behaviour as criminal

In any other industry if 180 died under you leadership you'd have your career ruined / maybe prison

Pretty poor analogy. Those that died were in the armed forces - that's incomparable to any traditional work force.

I sort of agree. But there is a difference between being a soldier and being an employee. When you sign up to become a soldier it is on the basis that you are prepared to die for the cause as it were. And 180 is rather an underestimation. My understanding was that the casualty list runs into hundreds of thousands and still counting.

But war criminal - I am not really sure I can see Blair and Bush on the same list as Hitler, Goebbels and Radovan Karadžić.

so those who die in the army have a death worth more than those who die in traditional work?

pretty poor logic

you seem to disagree with everyone so I'm gonna take this on my chin

Saddam was a severely destabilising influence at the time. We had already had the first gulf war due to him and because he wasnt finished off properly, then he was going to continue to be an issue as a threat to the western allies who had oil and Israel.