John Burton, Mr Blair's political agent in his Sedgefield constituency for 24 years, says that Labour's most successful ever leader – in terms of elections won – was driven by the belief that "good should triumph over evil".
"It's very simple to explain the idea of Blair the Warrior," he says. "It was part of Tony living out his faith."
Mr Blair has previously admitted that he was influenced by his Christian faith, but Mr Burton reveals for the first time the strength of his religious zeal...
"But Tony's Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks. He believed strongly at the time, that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone – Iraq too – was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil, making lives better."
Mr Burton, who was often described as Mr Blair's mentor, says that his religion gave him a "total belief in what's right and what's wrong", leading him to see the so-called War on Terror as "a moral cause".
Funny, that's exactly what Random said in response to my claim that religiosity and hawkishness are linked:
Well, if we're going to blunt about it, we could say that the real overlap is between religiosity and a clear and firm sense of right and wrong, and in particular the idea that evil should be fought and not relativised into something acceptable.
Yes, exactly.
And this is an interesting difference between the U.S. and Britain:
Mr Burton makes the comments in a book he has written, and which is published this week, called "We Don't Do God".
In it he portrays a prime minister determined to follow a Christian agenda despite attempts to silence him from talking about his faith.
"While he was at Number 10, Tony was virtually gagged on the whole question of religion," says Mr Burton.
"Alastair [Campbell] was convinced it would get him into trouble with the voters...
Tony Blair complained in 2007 that he had been unable to talk about his faith while in office as he would have been perceived as "a nutter".
"It's difficult if you talk about religious faith in our political system," he said. "If you are in the American political system or others then you can talk about religious faith and people say 'yes, that's fair enough' and it is something they respond to quite naturally. You talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter."
In Britain being a religious nut is a liability while in America it's a requirement. Either way, we ended up with religious nuts in both countries at the same time and, as a result, over a hundred thousand people are dead. Yaaay God!
