Dog of War

Dogs of war and men of hate

With no cause, we don’t discriminate

Discovery is to be disowned

Our currency is flesh and bone

Hell opened up and put on sale

Gather ’round and haggle

For hard cash, we will lie and deceive

Even our masters don’t know the web we weave

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–Pink Floyd

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One dog has stuck his nose out from behind the curtain…barely.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he’s sorry for “mistakes” made in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but he doesn’t regret bringing down dictator Saddam Hussein.

What blabbering is this?  Without putting too fine a point on it, if you only wanted to take out Saddam, did you need to turn an entire region into hell?

“I can say that I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong because, even though he had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people, against others, the program in the form that we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought,” Blair said…

How much more passive can he be?  I apologize for the intelligence I received?  “I apologize that Tommy had the wrong answer when I copied his test.”

Blair told Zakaria that besides the flawed Iraq intelligence, he also apologizes “for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.”

Obviously no lessons were learned – as no one stopped removing (or trying to remove) regimes in Libya or Syria, for example.

But he stopped short of a full apology for the war.

“I find it hard to apologize for removing Saddam. I think, even from today in 2015, it is better that he’s not there than that he is there,” Blair said.

And with this statement, any possibility that Blair’s non-apologies were really meant to be apologies can be dismissed.  Regardless of the faulty intelligence, regardless of mistakes in planning or considering consequences, etc., he still would have supported invading Iraq and taking out Saddam.

Blair acknowledged to Zakaria that there are “elements of truth” in the view that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the principle cause of the rise of ISIS.

He tries to get you to believe that he is taking some blame – yet his “element” is microscopic; it goes about as far as there is an element of truth that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon results in higher gasoline prices in Cambodia.

“Of course, you can’t say that those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015,” he said. “But it’s important also to realize, one, that the Arab Spring which began in 2011 would also have had its impact on Iraq today, and two, ISIS actually came to prominence from a base in Syria and not in Iraq.”

So why didn’t you go after ISIS instead of going after Assad?  In any case, don’t ask about the West’s involvement behind the so-called Arab Spring.

More broadly, Blair said, the policy debate on Western intervention remains inconclusive.

After more than one hundred years of Anglo failure in the Middle East, is he about to call into question the entire program of Western intervention?  Don’t hold your breath:

“We have tried intervention and putting down troops in Iraq; we’ve tried intervention without putting in troops in Libya; and we’ve tried no intervention at all but demanding regime change in Syria,” he said. “It’s not clear to me that, even if our policy did not work, subsequent policies have worked better.”

“Demanding regime change in Syria” – like they sent a diplomatic cable?  No intervention in Syria?  Really?

Asked by Zakaria how he feels about being branded a “war criminal” for his decision to go into Iraq, Blair said he did what he thought was right at the time.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Hitler did what he thought was right at the time; Stalin did what he thought was right at the time.  “Right” can be judged only via a specific value scale and ethical standard.

“Now, whether it’s right or not, that’s for — everyone can have their judgment about that,” he said.

Blair might consider standing trial in Fallujah to test this out.

Day of judgement, god is calling,

on their knees the war pigs crawling.

Begging mercy for their sins,

Satan, laughing, spreads his wings…Oh lord, yeah!

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–Black Sabbath

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Day of judgement, oh Lord, yeah; from Ozzy’s lips to God’s ears (wow, think about that picture!).

Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.

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