Gordon Carrera

Waiting for war.

And this is a very memorable scene for me because I was a producer at the Today program, Radio 4 at the time.

And I flew out with our presenter, James Nocatee, and we had a exclusive interview for the Today program with Tony Blair as he came out of that meeting with President Bush at Andrews Air Force Base.

And we were told to go to Andrews Air Force Base and wait for Blair where he was going to get his plane back to London.

So before we got on the plane, he was going to do an interview, four of us in this tiny room in Andrews Air Force Base, me and James Nocatee from the BBC, me holding the microphone.

And Tony Blair and one Alistair Campbell, podcaster, pre-podcast career, the four of us in the room.

this tiny room.

And what I remember is that Blair looked uneasy and uncomfortable and you could sense he was really unhappy.

And as soon as the mic went on and the questions started to be asked, he was in Blair mode and he was kind of brilliant performer as he always was.

But I could sense it.

And then years later, well, 20 years later, I interviewed him

for a series about Iraq.

And I asked him, did he feel trapped at that moment?

And he says, you're right.

I was uncomfortable because I could feel all the options were closing.

This is a guy who's not necessarily thought, I want to go to war, but has made a commitment to Bush that he will go to war with him if the process is followed, particularly going through the UN.

And now suddenly that's falling apart.

I think it is split, basically.

Whereas the US public is broadly supportive because you're in that post 9-11 world.

In the UK, it was, of course, everyone now says I was against the war, but it was broadly split down the middle if you look at the politics of it.