Blair Defiant and Unrepentant

I doubt if Tony Blair’s performance ( and I use that word advisedly) at the Iraq Inquiry yesterday will change people’s minds about the Iraq war, but it might just raise a few more questions in the minds of the public about Mr Blair himself.

He could have expressed some regret for the loss of life of British soldiers or Iraqis. He could have regretted the two dodgy dossiers put together by his dodgy team and others. He could have regretted the boost to recruitment for terrorist groups resulting from the crusade that he and his buddy Mr Bush launched. But Mr Blair says he has no regrets. That blinkered zealot-like heartlessness was shocking, especially with grieving relatives sat just behind him.

Many of us who opposed the war predicted the consequences and did not believe Saddam had WMDs in 2001 to 2003 when the Bush/Cheney axis of evil were itching to start a war. Even the 45 minute claim (source: one dissident Iraqi) related to supposed battlefield weapons not WMDs that could threaten any other country. Logic told me at the time that if there was ANY chance that WMDs could have been fired at Israel for example, then Bush and Blair would never have attacked. There was absolutely no way they would have risked chemical weapons landing on Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Blair clearly lied about the WMDs. He knew that the intelligence was ‘patchy and sporadic’ but said the WMDs were ‘beyond doubt’. I believe he knew the 45 minute claim related to supposed battlefield weapons but claimed he did not! I don’t usually read the Mail but CLICK HERE for a great article from 2004.

Following the invasion, the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical, and biological programmes in 1991 and had no active programmes at the time of the invasion.

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Help Dan please

Please can everyone join the Facebook Group ‘Help Dan’ – he’s a guy from Godalming – as the Facebook Group says, ‘Daniel Eley, a wonderful young man who used to work with street children in South America and is currently teaching English at a school in Cali, Colombia, had a terrible accident on 1st Jan 2010. He dived into a river in a remote area and broke vertebrae in his neck.’ He needs our help. Click here to go to the Help Dan Facebook group
Dan’s family need financial help to pay for an air ambulance to get him home to the UK. Give to the appeal to raise funds by clicking here.

Plot to remove Gordon Brown

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have just launched a bid to ditch Gordon Brown as Labour leader and PM weeks before a General Election. Astonishing! Although I have no time for either of them (remember Hoon’s role in the Iraq war) it’s got to be Labour’s only hope of preventing a resounding defeat for them.

Let’s hope all this does not take the spotlight off David Cameron’s economic naivety and ill-thought out tax plans. Gordon actually did rather well in Prime Minister’s Questions today – exposing Cameron’s amateurish policy-making in respect of the married couples allowance and his continued commitment to cutting inheritance tax for a few thousand of the richest people in the land.