I think that this view is about right. Tony Blair had this to say in his resignation speech at Sedgefield "I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call. But believe one thing: I did what I thought was right for our country". It doesn't stand up to cross examination. "Blair was exactly what George W. Bush needed to sell his fraudulent and immoral war in Iraq to the American public: a seemingly reasonable and non-partisan stamp of international approval (after all, he'd been bosom buddies with Bill Clinton, hadn't he?). Blair enabled the Bush myth that the invasion of Iraq was a coalition effort, that it wasn't just Mongolia, Moldova, Singapore, Poland, and Tonga making up the Coalition of the Willing to Go Along. It was Britain. Great Britain.
More than being just Bush and Cheney's cheery wingman, Blair was one of their top salesmen, pitching sexed up dossiers, Nigeran yellowcake, and the specter of chemical weapons "ready within 45 minutes" raining down on Europe. Although Blair was far from the only enabler to Bush's Iraq fantasies -- spineless Congressional Democrats and a wildly compliant press certainly did their part -- the impact of his unwavering support was enormous.
Iraq is George Bush's war, but Tony Blair's legacy will be forever tainted by the part of it he claimed for his own".
Blair sounds rather like John McEnroe claiming that the ball was in, and the umpire who's call it is stating that the ball was out.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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