The absolutely craven and disgusting former British prime minister Tony Blair has been under fire since new reports have emerged that he strongly promised support for the Bush-Cheney gang’s plans to wage a criminal and illegal war against Iraq long before those plans even became public. Blair’s desperate desire to ingratiate himself with the US government has long been well known and he was called ‘Bush’s poodle’, though that is an insult to a proud, intelligent, and dignified breed of dog. I wonder how the British public feel about their prime minister having been so abjectly servile to US leaders.
Blain is now apologizing for his ‘mistakes’, blaming it on receiving faulty intelligence. The faux apology comes before the public release of the long-delayed Chilcot inquiry into the war, though Blair and other principal figures have apparently been told what the verdict on them is.
For the first time publicly, Blair has admitted to oversights in intelligence and planning of the war — referring to the allegation that Saddam’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction, a claim used by the U.S. and British governments to justify launching the invasion.
“I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong. I also apologize for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime,” he said.
Blair’s latest remarks are in stark contrast to his statement in 2004, when he told British MPs: “I will not apologize for the conflict. I believe it was right.” In 2007, he reiterated this sentiment, saying: “I don’t think we should be apologizing at all for what we are doing in Iraq.”
But they were not mistakes. They were a conscious decision to go to war on the basis of a fraudulent case that was concocted by them out of manufactured evidence and rank fear-mongering. As a result, the entire region is up in flames with hundreds of thousands of people dead and injured, and millions more homeless and refugees. It was a monstrous crime. Blair, like Bush and Cheney are war criminals and no number of weasel-worded apologies is going to change that.
Blair is a devout Catholic, keeping his deep religiosity a secret because unlike in the US, being overtly religious is not seen as such a plus there, and he converted to that faith after he left office. Maybe he is worried about his immortal soul and is seeking to make amends so that his soul does not burn in hell forever.
But for salvation, he should see a priest. There can be no redemption on this Earth for such craven war mongers like Blair. They must be treated like the pariahs they are.
“But don’t you agree the world is better without Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq?”
No, I don’t. He was an awful, murderous man that belonged in prison, so it’s telling when having him in power is preferable to what’s happening in that region right now.
I’m English (but live in the US), and I recall thinking at the time when Blair visited Bush that this was good, and that he would talk sense into Bush. I was astonished and ashamed after the meeting to discover that he had instead been pandering. At that point I lost all respect for Blair, categorising him in the same evil club along with Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld. Ugh.
Tony Blair has been under fire
Hardly. The media has been very careful to allow him to maintain his spin, instead of screaming at him, like they ought to.
“But don’t you agree the world is better without Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq?”
Yeah, because Hussein was a warmonger who started wars of aggression and supported torture and, uhhhhhh…. Bad shit like that? Hussein probably belonged in front of the international humanitarian court for using chemical weapons. But he only did that because he didn’t have cluster munitions, fuel/air explosives, and depleted uranium like the US/UK used on his troops.
Calling what Blair did “pandering” is an insult to panders. Generally their mistakes don’t result in massive casualties. What Blair did is “homicide” -- call it what it is. And, he did it for political reasons. And, apparently: “I believe it was right.” Unapologetic. That’s not even a notpology.
The world is also a better place without Tony Blair in power.
Frankie Boyle is reported to have said that the proper place for Tony Blair’s not-an-apology is in front of the International War Crimes Court in The Hague. I’m a member of the British public and that perfectly sums up how I feel: the man should be tried.
The intelligence was not faulty; it was deliberately twisted. That’s why it was a crime. The famous leaked cabinet minutes made it clear that facts were following policy, not vice versa.
Another thing not mentioned much is that even if the intelligence was accurate, would that have made the invasion any more lawful? I don’t see how Iraq building up weapons gives the US/UK (plus Australia) the right to unilaterally invade and forcibly install a new regime. No more than the US flouting arms treaties gives others the right to unilaterally attack it.
Somewhere deep inside Blair’s blackened soul, he knows he was wrong and that he ignored everyone who told him he was wrong and patiently showed him how he was wrong. In my dreams, anyway.
Every time he utters a desperate word in his own defence, and tells us that he prayed to god for reassurance that he wasn’t wrong, he digs himself deeper into his own personal hell. In my dreams, anyway.
Till then: arrest him for his day in court — if his highly-placed friends throughout the UK and US govts will let us.