Sharpe's Opinion
Friday, 19th Jun, 2009
No leader of a free country would lie to take their country to war.
Blue Eyes’ position on the Iraq War is spookily similar to my own:
When the 45-minute claim was being bandied about I did not believe it. But when Tony Blair stood up and said that we must go to war, I took it on trust that, however undesirable it might be, it must be necessary. My flawed logic was based on the supposition that no leader of a free country in the 21st century would take his nation to war, would risk his citizens’ lives, would wish so much death, disaster and despair on a foreign land without good reason. Not even Bush’s Poodle would enter such a conflict lightly. And that turned out to be a fatal logic on my part. I have hated myself ever since for being so easily taken in. I console myself with the knowledge that I was not the only one, but it darkens my conscience nonetheless.
I’ve wanted to find the words to say exactly that myself for a long time. The Iraq war was, purely and simply, a betrayal of the trust of the people by their Prime Minister. Blair did to the office of the Prime Minister what Nixon did to the office of the President – but Blair did it with a bit more charm, and so he can get away with it.
Comments
So it’s OK to “take” someone out who you don’t like? What happens when someone doesn’t like you? Will you be happy to be “taken” out?
No, Blair can’t get away with it.
Forget Saddam; he was an excuse for there are far worse despots in the world. Forget even WMD; that was a phoney excuse to get round the legal situation. The internal politics of Iraq made it blatant that it was going to be a nightmare afterwards.
I believe helping the US to secure both cheap oil and infrastructure contracts for a decade was the real agenda, although I am sure the Americans were coy about that. They knew Blair was religious before even the British public did and I am sure they capitalised on that knowledge.
With charm, you can get away with many things but not taking your country to war, surely?
I like Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson and believe the BBC does a great job, overall. I agree with the ban on smoking in public places. I read The Guardian, out of choice. I don’t think 9/11 was an inside job. Gosh, I even believe both Thatcher and Blair were good Prime Ministers.
What an idiot I’ve been all these years.
I don’t think you would like my blog very much then. I regard people who think it’s OK to force me to pay for TV I don’t want to watch, who think it’s OK to ban things they don’t like and who respect liars and thieves as rather unpleasant sorts. But I’m sure you’re terribly good company at dinner parties.
Blue Eyes, I respect people who have their own opinion, and can support it with decent debate. On the whole, you do that rather well.
I don’t tend to get invited to dinner parties. Not sure why…
You are right, sorry. Nothing personal. But my vision gets tinted red when I see people defending Blair or the TV Licence or the smoking ban.
I mean ‘he can get away with it’ strictly in the sense that the media and general populace give him the benefit of the doubt, not to say he should be able to get away with it.
Just to clarify. 
Pretty sure there were thousands of reasons to take Saddam out. Just not provable in a British court. Does that say more about our sense of justice rather than justice itself?
ladytizzy
June 20, 2009 at 10:50 pm