Blair: 'It's not our (my) fault' and Boris 'He is mad'
At the weekend Tony Blair released an essay on his website, which was republished widely. To say the least it has stirred up a reaction.
It is a long essay so I have only selected one paragraph:
Quote:
Indeed we now have three examples of Western policy towards regime change in the region. In Iraq, we called for the regime to change, removed it and put in troops to try to rebuild the country. But intervention proved very tough and today the country is at risk again. In Libya, we called for the regime to change, we removed it by air power, but refused to put in troops and now Libya is racked by instability, violence and has exported vast amounts of trouble and weapons across North Africa and down into sub- Saharan Africa. In Syria we called for the regime to change, took no action and it is in the worst state of all.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...our-fault.html
Boris Johnson, the Conservative elected Mayor of London, has responded in his own style and one sentence from the start:
Quote:
In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...o-deny-it.html
For many of Blair's opponents in the UK he is irrelevant today. Boris has his own agenda and is the first significant public figure to openly challenge him, who voted for the original war.
The loneliness of Tony Blair
A lengthy profile and assessment of Tony Blair in the closing 2014 issue of The Economist, which explains well why he is so reviled at home and admired by many abroad:http://www.economist.com/news/christ..._of_tony_blair
Blair prepares his defences
For reasons that are not made clear Tony Blair has been interviewed on CNN about the Iraq War and stated:
Quote:
I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong. I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...n-rise-of-isis
Whilst he may persaude some he appears to have failed with all the UK press. For example 'The Mirror' a Labour leaning paper usually, although in 2003 opposed to the war:
Quote:
(Blair) will never face up to the enormity of his actions. He will never say sorry for all he has done...The central charge against him remains woefully unaddressed – that he took this country to war upon a lie. And as a result of his actions 179 brave British soldiers lie dead, alongside thousands of US allies and untold numbers of Iraqi citizens.
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/media/gre...q-war-apology?
It probably doesn't help his "spin" the release of an official memo by Colin Powell:
Quote:
According to Powell’s memo, Blair indicated to then US president George W Bush in March 2002 that the UK would support military operations in Iraq if necessary, a full year before the invasion. Blair has said repeatedly he had not committed the UK to the war until 2003.
Link to the memo:http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...bush-iraq-memo
Tony Blair’s Eternal Shame: The Report
The UK's official inquiry into the Iraq War, known as the Chilcot Report, has been covered elsewhere.
This week an American "lurker" directed me to a scathing review of Tony Blair, by the British journalist, Geoffrey Wheatcroft:http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016...hilcot-report/
The "lurker" admired the last paragraph:
Quote:
Long after those distant years of triumph, the truth about Blair finally becomes clear. He believed himself to be a great leader and redeemer; some of the weirder passages in his memoir—“I felt a growing inner sense of belief, almost of destiny…I was alone”—suggest an almost clinically delusional personality; and of course he did something shameful or even wicked in Iraq. And yet in the end Tony Blair isn’t a messiah or a madman or a monster. He’s a complete and utter mediocrity. He might have made an adequate prime minister in ordinary days, but in our strange and testing times he was hopelessly out of his depth. Now we are left with the consequences.