Blair Apologizes, Bush Doesn’t
(Courtesy of The Ceylon Today)
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair made an extraordinary confession after 12 years of refusing to apologize for his conduct which has now led to ‘hell’ in Iraq because of the decision made by him together with US President George Bush. He also admitted that ‘there is an element of truth that the war caused the rise of Islamic State (IS) terrorism. While repeatedly saying sorry for his conduct and even referring to claims that the invasion was a war ‘crime’, Blair refrained from admitting that he committed a war crime. His excuse for the mistake was that the intelligence he 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. But I find it hard to apologize for removing Saddam. I think even from today 2015 it’s better that he is not there than he is there.”
Bush’s ‘poodle’
In the ‘trial by TV’, respected US political broadcaster Fareed Zakaria accuses him of being President Bush’s ‘poodle’ over the conflict. Blair’s confession comes a week after the disclosure of a White House memo revealing how Blair and Bush agreed a ‘deal in blood’ a year before the invasion.
Blair was asked whether the invasion of Iraq was the ‘principle cause’ of the rise of ISIS and the former Prime Minister said: “I think there are elements of truth in that. But we have got to be extremely careful otherwise we will misunderstand what’s going on in Iraq and in Syria today.”
“Of course you can’t say that those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015.”
Diplomatic solution
A 2002 briefing note from US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the President showed Blair had secretly pledged to back the conflict – while telling MPs and British voters that he was seeking a diplomatic solution.
In his CNN interview, Blair candidly asks for forgiveness for his blunder in not realizing “what would happen once you removed the regime.”
The admission makes a mockery of the statement in the Powell memo that Blair would “demonstrate to Bush that we have thought through ‘the day after,’ a reference to the consequences of invasion.
Blair has seen light after a decade in the darkness after the Chilcot Report was released last week confirming that the US and the UK waged an illegal war against Iraq. The war inquiry panel headed by Sir John Chilcot has said the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before all peaceful options had been exhausted.
Chilcot Report
On the basis of the Chilcot Report, one could argue that if the war was illegal, the destruction of Iraq as well as hanging of Saddam Hussein as well as killing of hundreds of thousands of people was also illegal and tantamount to be war crimes.
British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn got it right when he described the Iraqi war as ‘an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext’. He has said the war had ‘long been regarded as illegal by the overwhelming weight of international opinion’. He has struck a responsive chord with the right-thinking people the world over.
Some prominent Conservatives have slammed Blair, but the fact remains that they threw their weight behind him when he asked for parliamentary approval for his illegal war and made crimes against the Iraqi population possible and the bottom line is that they too have the blood of civilians on their hands. Double standards.
The double standards of the West have been proven time and again. The US is busy ‘exporting democracy’ and pontificating on the virtues of human rights to the rest of the world. It has also taken upon itself the task of having war crimes probed the world over.
What right the US and UK has to question about alleged atrocities against civilians in other countries when they are not doing anything about their illegal deeds? Shouldn’t the UK and US put their own houses in order first?
Britain’s actions undermined the authority of the United Nations Security Council though the Blair Government was claiming to act on behalf of the international community. Now the question remains what action will the UN take to assert itself and to prevent a repetition of such criminal activities? Will the UNHRC and its Commissioner Prince Zeid Hussein take action against the UK and US?
American pressure
Former Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the Iraq Inquiry had revealed that the then Premier Tony Blair resorted to military action under American pressure. Blair ended up causing irreversible damage with Western powers facing the threat of ISIS on a global scale, Bogollagama pointed out. The US and the British also exploited certain UN resolutions on Iraq to achieve their overall objectives in Iraq, he said.
It is strange that the Foreign Ministry could not see ‘any connection or relevance in the Chilcot Report, however, to our own internal affairs.’ A spokesman of the ministry reportedly gave the above reply responding to a query as regards the possibility of Sri Lanka benefiting from the Iraq Inquiry report in the run-up to the war crimes inquiry against Sri Lanka in accordance with Geneva Resolution 30/1.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, no doubt, had to be tamed, but the war which the US and the UK jointly fought have landed the world in a far worse situation with the IS terrorists wreaking havoc not only in Iraq but also in other countries at will. Iraq has descended to the depths of anarchy with no hope of recovery.There is a pressing need for assessing the human cost of the illegal Iraq war. About one million lives are believed to have been destroyed. The Chilcot report does not deal with the humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq.
Televised apology
Families of soldiers killed in the Iraq war have described their ‘revulsion’ towards Tony Blair’s televised apology and warned his comments are part of a ‘spin operation’ ahead of the publication of the Chilcot Report.
Earlier, Blair refused to apologize. In 2004 he told MPs: “I will not apologize for the conflict. I believe it was right”, a sentiment he echoed in 2007, when he said: “I don’t think we should be apologizing at all for what we are doing in Iraq.” Well, one could say, better late than never.
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