Blair and Bush are still facing backlash from the Iraqi invasion decision (file photo)

CAIRO , July 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq continues to haunt US President George W. Bush and his war alley British Prime Minister Tony Blair more than 15 months after their troops invaded and occupied the oil rich country.

In London , a new poll showed Sunday, July 18, that almost six out of 10 Britons would not trust Blair to lead the country into another war following intelligence failures over Iraq 's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

And a majority of Americans surveyed for a New York Times/CBS News poll said the United States should not have launched the war on Iraq .

The opinion poll for the Sunday Times newspaper found that 57 percent of the British people would not trust Blair were he to take Britain into another conflict, with a mere 31 percent saying they would, said an Agence France-Presse (AFP) projection of the poll results.

Some 46 per cent of the more than 1,700 people polled said they believed Blair deliberately distorted intelligence on Iraq 's alleged weapons, while 43 percent who thought he genuinely believed his own case.

Just as damningly, 56 percent thought Blair would have waged war regardless of what the intelligence said.

Also, 61 percent against 28 percent of the respondents believe he should apologize to the country.

The figures are an indictment of how far public belief in Blair has plummeted in the wake of last year's US-led invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq , which Blair strongly backed despite widespread domestic opposition.

Blair had argued that Iraq was posing an immediate threat and that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had to be removed, but no such weapons have been found in the 15 months since Baghdad fell.

On Wednesday, an official inquiry, blasted the British pre-war intelligence as unreliable and seriously flawed, concluding that Iraq most likely possessed no useable weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

However, the inquiry, led by former top civil servant Lord Robin Butler, absolved Blair and his government of deliberate wrongdoing.

This verdict has been ridiculed by many critics, and according to the Sunday Times poll, many members of the public are similarly skeptical.

Change Of Heart

In an interview with the Sunday Times, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, which backed Blair over Iraq , said he would have taken a different position had he known the truth about the intelligence.

Michael Howard said he would not have supported a motion in parliament last year backing the war, given that it referred to Iraq 's WMDs as posing "a threat to international security."

"If I knew then what I know now, that would have caused a difficulty. I couldn't have voted for that resolution," he told the Sunday Times.

"If you look at the terms of the actual motion put to the House of Commons on March 18, it placed very heavy emphasis on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq .

"So I think it is difficult for someone, knowing everything we know now, to have voted for that particular resolution," Howard said.

The parliamentary motion was only passed in the House of Commons thanks to Conservative support, after 139 of Blair's Labour lawmakers rebelled.

US Public Support Slips

The case for Bush is not any better during the decisive months of the presidential election season.

Fifty-one percent of respondents to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, up from 46 percent in April, May and June, reported the NY Times.

Some 45 percent said military intervention was a good idea, down from 48 percent in June.

Sixty-two percent said the Iraq war was not worth the cost in lost lives and other repercussions.

Fifty-eight of the polled vocalized disapproval of the way Bush conducted the war, compared with just 37 percent who approved.

The US Senate Intelligence Committee concluded Friday, July 10, that the CIA’s rationale to invade Iraq was "overstated, misleading or incorrect".

After six moths of searching for Iraq ’s alleged nuclear arsenal, a group of CIA-hired inspectors failed to find any traces of the alleged WMDs.

The Bush administration embarrassment culminated in the resignation of the head of the American team, David Kay, who said publicly that he did not believe Iraq possessed any chemical or biological weapons.