Tony Blair will Not be investigated over Iraq war

[nickrhodes]

Personally I think that is the correct decision. You have to take difficult and tough decisions in government. What he underestimated was the sheer number of extremist groups in the middle east. Take out an evil dictator and unlike Europe you get an even more extremist group in its place. That's not Tony's fault, he can't legislate for people who can't live in a civilised manner.

This is not nick Rhodes.

 

[ManOfSussex]

I'm personally relieved that he wont be. As an 18 year old in 1997, who voted Labour and believed that things would only get better, despite a few cynics saying it wouldn't, I wouldn't want my delusions shattered and the doubters proved right by him going on trail in The Hague now. Cool Britannia!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Personally I think that is the correct decision. You have to take difficult and tough decisions in government. What he underestimated was the sheer number of extremist groups in the middle east. Take out an evil dictator and unlike Europe you get an even more extremist group in its place. That's not Tony's fault, he can't legislate for people who can't live in a civilised manner.

This is not nick Rhodes.

Why don't you register with your own username? Just a thought.

 

[Hillian1]

Piss off.

 

[nickrhodes]

That does make sense, I will do that this week. My username will be beach&surf if I can get that

 

[mona]

A good example of the danger of having a fool as PM. Anyone with a moderate knowledge of the Middle East and the Islamic world could have predicted the danger of taking out the secular leader of Iraq even if he was a seriously nasty character.

 

[ManOfSussex]

A good example of the danger of having a fool as PM. Anyone with a moderate knowledge of the Middle East and the Islamic world could have predicted the danger of taking out the secular leader of Iraq even if he was a seriously nasty character.

But Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that were going to fired at us. We were already fighting a war in Afghanistan, so what harm in starting another one? We're The United Kingdom and a big cheese on the world stage.

 

[goldstone]

A good example of the danger of having a fool as PM. Anyone with a moderate knowledge of the Middle East and the Islamic world could have predicted the danger of taking out the secular leader of Iraq even if he was a seriously nasty character.

Correct. Blair is an extremely unpleasant self-serving fool. Deserves to suffer some consequences for the chaos and unnecessary deaths he caused.

 

[portslade seagull]

But Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that were going to fired at us. We were already fighting a war in Afghanistan, so what harm in starting another one? We're The United Kingdom and a big cheese on the world stage.

Is Saddam was still in power Isil wouldn't have been heard off. We should've stuck to sanctions to bring him into line instead of being bush's puppy dog

 

[studio150]

Can we not wait until Wednesday and the publication of the long awaited Chiltern report. Presently we have the current fad in that someone must pay and no doubt if the report us critical there will be a rush for compensation for anyone who fought in the war.
It will be interesting to see how Corbyn performs in parliament given his views on the war. It may be his one chance to look competent in his current role.
However I am expecting shouts of whitewash if the report doesn't support some long held views.
At least it may relegated Brexit from the news for a day or two.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Why don't you register with your own username? Just a thought.

Tony Blair?

 

[ManOfSussex]

Is Saddam was still in power Isil wouldn't have been heard off. We should've stuck to sanctions to bring him into line instead of being bush's puppy dog

I totally agree.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Is Saddam was still in power Isil wouldn't have been heard off. We should've stuck to sanctions to bring him into line instead of being bush's puppy dog

I disagree. Saddam defied Blix for ten years. he refused to allow proper weapons inspection. Blix wanted to shrug his shoulders, try again later, and collect his salary. There was no need for there to actually be WMD for the invasion. The mistakes made were 1. thinking that in general the invasion was a good idea (that was motivated by the American desire to get the oil and the contract to rebuild), 2. Tony thinking it would make it all even better if there actually were WMD, and bringing his 'belief' into the proceedings.

The rest is history. I will never vote again for any politician who professes to have religious belief, or trades in the concept of belief. Belief is self delusion. Harness that with charisma and the ability to emote then you have a successful politician who will become leader, but whose decision making will be peripatetic.

 

[ManOfSussex]

I disagree. Saddam defied Blix for ten years. he refused to allow proper weapons inspection. Blix wanted to shrug his shoulders, try again later, and collect his salary. There was no need for there to actually be WMD for the invasion. The mistakes made were 1. thinking that in general the invasion was a good idea (that was motivated by the American desire to get the oil and the contract to rebuild), 2. Tony thinking it would make it all even better if there actually were WMD, and bringing his 'belief' into the proceedings.

The rest is history. I will never vote again for any politician who professes to have religious belief, or trades in the concept of belief. Belief is self delusion. Harness that with charisma and the ability to emote then you have a successful politician who will become leader, but whose decision making will be peripatetic.

3. No realistic, coherent post invasion strategy. No consideration for the law of unintended consequence. Just make it up as you go along. Bit like something else I can think of..............

 

[luppers]

I totally agree.

Also totally agree,we all know Saddam was an evil b-----d but the reason Blair quoted for the war was the weapons of mass destruction that his boss George Bush told him about which of course turned out to be a load of lies.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

3. No realistic, coherent post invasion strategy. No consideration for the law of unintended consequence. Just make it up as you go along. Bit like something else I can think of..............

Exactly. When politics was satirised in the past as the retention of power by fooling the public by pandering to their prejudices and base desired (1984l Rollerball etc etc), it was easy to mock the satire as fantasy. Sadly, the public get the politicians they desire and deserve. The politicians act in their political interest (its in the effing name) not because scientific analysis says it is correct. OK in many aspects of life its about making the best guess. Fine. In war the best guess is the one that seems most likely to lead to victory. In politics it is just the same - except it is victory as in re-election, not victory as in improving the lot of the bloody electorate. the fact that folk don't seem to realise this is their own fault. Given such things as the parochial discussion on here, elsewhere, about class etc, it is no wonder. Anyone who thinks they are defined by their class and this determines their social attitude - by definition - is pure fodder for the political system we have, and an ideal elector. As Orwell satirised, and to slightly misquote, we have no hope at all if we trust the proles.

 

[GreersElbow]

Well, he only cherry picked information from the reports, there wasn't anything he outrightly lied about. It was in documents provided to him and he chose to ignore the context around a lot of the presumptions made about going in.


Iraq did have WMDs, we ****ing sold them some during the Iran-Iraq War.

 

[Ernest]

Blair should be forced to kneel in front of every family that lost a son or daughter in the Iraq War and beg their forgiveness

 

[WATFORD zero]

A good example of the danger of having a fool as PM.

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Boris Johnson, George Osbourne have all been described as fools. This politics lark must be easy to get to the top of if it's populated by idiots. Beats me why some of the intelligent posters on here don't do it

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

B.Liar might escape justice via the International Criminal Court, but hopefully the Chilcot Report will confirm what very large numbers of people suspected at the time i.e. that he deliberately misled Parliament and led the British people into an illegal war on the basis of a souped-up dodgy dossier.