Blair should apologise, says Seldon
by Chris Ames
In the Observer, Tony Blair’s biographer Anthony Seldon says that the time has come for Blair to stop justifying himself and apologise, not for the war itself but for a number of “errors”, including:
“He should accept responsibility for misleading the British public over the reason for committing British troops to fight. While the intelligence was sufficient to convince most insiders across the world that Saddam had powerful weapons, he could and should have probed the ‘45 minutes’ thesis more on WMDs and given primacy to his moral case for war over WMDs. If this had failed to sway Parliament, then so be it.”
Seldon is falling into a common trap here of repeating the myth that everyone was convinced that Iraq had wmd. It is lazy and untrue.
5 Responses to “Blair should apologise, says Seldon”
Comment from BlairSupporter
Time December 20, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Stan – were you hoping to have a break at Christmas, by any chance? Me too.
Pity the know-alls around are joining forces to keep those committed to the REAL truth busy.
Note: Seldon was agin the Iraq invasion. He’s justifying himself more than anything, since it was clearly a successful campaign. Not that many on here understand that. ANY of that.
Pingback from Tony hits back: “I’ve got a problem with the UK media.” « Julie's think tank
Time December 20, 2009 at 4:48 pm
[...] BULLSHIT, as Stan brilliantly points out here [...]
Comment from CaliforniaGirl
Time December 20, 2009 at 5:08 pm
You are right, Mr. Rosenthal; exactly right, imho.
Comment from Lee Roberts
Time December 24, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I am prevented by the libel laws in the United Kingdom from stating the exact nature of my views and feelings about Seldon. All I can say is that he fits into a very special category in which there are just a handful of others.
Comment from Stan Rosenthal
Time December 20, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Thought you would pick up on this article,Chris.
How dare Anthony Seldon tell Blair to stop justifying himself and acknowledge his errors (as Mr Sanctimonious Seldon sees them)!
I suppose he would prefer Tony Blair to just keep quiet while others are daily ripping his reputation to pieces.
As for those “errors”, there was no misleading of the British public as I and the more objective commentators have repeatedly shown. The case for war was put in terms of the breach of UN resolutions designed to deal with the WMD threat as it was seen THEN, if not now.
The moral case for removing Saddam was frequently stated by Blair but he rightly saw that giving primacy to it as the casus bellum would have cut no ice with those who put legal niceties before moral considerations. In such circumstances, if a tyrant gives you another good, legal, reason for getting rid of him you would be a fool and morally reprehensible not to use it.
That’s the difference between being a statesman and being an academic onlooker.