Friday, 29 January 2010

blair blah

This is not primarily a political blog, as readers may have noticed. However, I feel I must comment on today's proceedings at the QE2 conference centre. This is a big deal, and is probably being picked up by broadcasters around the world as I write. Anyone hoping for some new insights will be disappointed, I suspect, and should be upbraided for their naivitee. Blair was an experienced barrister years before he ever became an MP, and he's had 10 years of practice fending off far more skilled inquisitors than he's had to deal with today.

For me the now notorious "dodgy dossier" is the key. Mostly written by a PhD student relying more heavily on (malinformed) opinion than hard facts, it cited Saddam's gas attacks on the residents of Al Halabja in 1988 as one of the best reasons for bringing his regime to an end. But there WAS a war to sort this out, and it was in 1991. How come they needed another shot to sort this out, 12 years later? As for the WMDs, I'm sorry Tony, but I think you knew this was crap at the time, and that you did indeed mislead parliament and the British people by suggesting they were a real threat. You even mentioned oil as one of the motivations this morning, though it was not taken up as it should have been. I'm sure you were told by "W" that if Britain didn't co-operate we could kiss goodbye to any vestiges of the "special relationship", which in itself was only some fond fantasy dreamed up by Winston Churchill just after the end of World War 2. What about France, which was doubtless cast into the outer darkness by the US after their unsportsmanlike refusal to go along with the invasion? Doesn't seem to have done them too much harm..

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