I agree with you regarding Blair. He DID explain it all, and well. However, he was not a member of the US government. Bush needed to be out constantly in the run-up to the war, and in its process and its aftermath, setting and managing expectations against the developments on the ground. He was just not up to that job. The man is not a good public speaker, and he’s not good at thinking on his feet. He delegated it to Rumsfeld and Cheney, and their personalities worked against them in public opinion (I am a big fan of each of them, myself, but in a serious minority in that regard.)
Pro American propaganda used to be a good thing.
No leader in his right mind would get up everyday and whine, cry, apologize, for every error, mistake, lost battle, etc.
Can you imagine FDR doing that?
No, it was the fact that the Administration did not want to get into a tit-for-tat with the anti-American Democrat Party and GLOBAL news media that wanted us to lose.
The MSM/Hollywood/Academia/DNC “war room” were running a shadow government, leaking intell, with traitors in bureaucracies being sourced in articles and on the air for an immediate counter point to ANY speech or interview by Administration official. (who could not reveal intell for our side)
As evidenced by the REFUSAL FOR 5 YEARS RUNNING, to broadcast the DAILY briefings by Military commanders on the ground, in BOTH war theaters. Reporters from around the world, including Iraqi and Afghan reporters, were asking good questions, hostile and not, as it should be.
The American public, nor the worldwide public were NOT allowed to SEE gobs of info, battles won and lost, reasons, rationals, plans, what worked and didn't work, what would be trying next.
WE GOT ZERO, on purpose, for a reason.
Rumsfeld and Cheney are/were serious adults throughout, and obviously did not try to “get good press”, therefore the press ruined their reputations, on purpose.
As far as Blair goes, it was he who devised the strategy of going to the UN to argue for 14 months. He refused to go in on a “regime change” mandate, remember?
He only would go if Bush took it to the UN as a WMD charge.
Cheney and Rumselfed disagreed, and Bush went with Powell and Blair's plan.
This was the President's first mistake, but obviously he thought he needed Blair and had no choice.