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A principled disciple of Thomas Aquinas or a
war monger?
After his farewell speech on May 10, Prime Minister Tony
Blair beamed with the relief of a man finally shedding his burden; yet the
reality is that he is more likely go down in history as a warmonger. British
troops fought more wars in the last 10 years than under any previous prime
minister, and his premiership will ultimately be defined by his decision to
commit British troops to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and his staunch
support for President George who is loathed by two thirds of Britons,
according to pollsters.
In his last speech, Blair added a human dimension to the
office saying ‘when you are alone with your instincts’. The
loneliness of a leader on the eve of decisions meaning life or dearth for
thousands.
While thanking the British people for the times he have succeeded, his ‘apologises’ for the times he has ‘fallen short’
was his indirect apology for the mess in Iraq; but the final chapter has
yet to be written. British intelligence informed Blair early 2003 that
French President Jack Chirac instructed his man in the UN to veto a British
prepared second resolution to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq with full international
backing. Dropping the idea of getting a fresh UN mandate Blair had little choice
but to go with President Bush rather than leaving the Americans to go it
alone. Notably Blair timed his departure from Downing Street to fall after
Chirac has left the Elise
Palace.
Amazingly the largely left-leaning media overlooks
President Chirac’s share of the blame in what happened later in Iraq; the same they quickly forgot Britain's
positive involvement in the Kosovo conflict.
It was the
test of Blair’s "doctrine of the international community”
and the duty of pre-emptive intervention for humanitarian reasons, which he
summed in a speech to the Chicago Economic Club in April 1999. The
doctrine would later serve as his justification for allying himself so
closely with the Bush administration in the global war on terror.
It wasn’t just his reading of the teachings of St
Thomas Aquinas, but Blair’s reassurance came from a British public
believing he was right to confront Slobodan Milosevic and prevent him from ethnically
cleansing Kosovo of its Albanian Muslim population. Committing British
troops to intervene in an ugly civil war in Sierra Leone a year later earned
Blair plaudits as a rare Western leader who was not afraid to take robust
measures to defend life and liberty.
Blair had been appalled by the "moral cowardice of the
Tories" when John Major
government took no effective steps to halt the massacres in Bosnia and
Rwanda- a view incidentally shared by Baroness Thatcher.
While Thatcher saw upholding legitimacy and international
law as way back to reclaim Britain’s greatness( her leading role in
librating Kuwait when George Bush Jr hesitated in
August 1990 was a case in point); Blair believed strongly that Britain
should be a force for good in the world, whether it was Kosovo, Africa or
the Middle East. After charming the Israelis, who were always suspicious of
‘pro-Arab Britain,’
he actively persuaded President Bush to commit to ‘an independent
viable Palestinian state.’
Milosevic couldn’t have left Kosovo without American
firepower, which was only secured by Blair’s closeness to President
Bill Clinton while European’s were reluctant to act. The same went,
in Blair’s mind, at least for winning the global war on terror in the
wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001. His standing shoulder to shoulder
with America was
principled: America
was the victim of terror aggression by al-Qaeda.
Blair’s enthusiasm for transatlantic alliance is
partly owed to Baroness Thatcher who advised him shortly after entering
Downing street in 1997 it was the essential duty of a British prime
minister to remain close to the White House, irrespective of who the
occupant might be, because the defence of Britain's national interests was
better served by sticking close to America than dallying with the
unreliable Europeans. It wasn’t too long before Blair discovered it
for himself despite his initial enthusiasm for the European Union after
being fully exposed to the cumbersome and duplicitous reality of the
Brussels and the Franco-German axis hostile plots against the Anglo-American
‘ historic enemy’ .
Despite the criticism he suffered for participating in the
invasion of both Afghanistan
and Iraq,
he remained defiant to the end that he had acted in the best interests of
the British people.
"I ask you to accept one thing’’,
Blair told his constituents in his farewell speech on May 10. “Hand
on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong -- that's
your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was
right for our country.”
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