Gorbachev: «Iraq Was а Big Mistake»

     Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has told Sky News that Tony Blair's decision to send British troops to Iraq has damaged his legacy.
     In an exclusive interview he said: «I believe that the beginning and the middle part of Tony Blair's course were good, were successful.
     «And I think that he regrets and others regret what happened».
     «It certainly was a mistake. On the day when hostilities started against Iraq, I said it was a major policy mistake.
     «It turned out to be an even bigger mistake than I had thought.
     «I don't know who actually played a bigger role, whether the information that Americans received from you or their own intelligence information or they invented the intelligence where there was none.
     «But ultimately they did not find weapons of mass destruction and they got a lot of bloodshed».
     The man who helped bring an end to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race also condemned America's plan to build a missile shield in Poland.
     He said: «(In Russia) we have been trying to avoid the arms race. But right in front of us, the United States has now a bigger defense budget than it was during the height of the cold war. What's happening?
     «Why is that? And we cannot fully explain it by just the need to fight terrorism, you cannot fight terrorism with nuclear warheads. That is going too far.
     «They want democracy in their own country but what about democracy in international affairs? There is no democracy, there is the rule of the fist instead».
     Mr Gorbachev is chairman of Green Cross International, an environmental version of the Red Cross.
It works in more than 30 countries to repair the damage caused by war and weapons manufacture and over-exploitation of the world's resources.
     Despite the number of dire predictions from many of the world's scientists, he said governments are still not doing enough to protect the environment.
     «There are too many declarations, too little action», he said.
     Mr Gorbachev said there needs to be a new «sermon on the mount» with environmental principles to which all countries should adhere to avoid irreparable damage to the planet.
     «It's five minutes to midnight», he warned.