Tony Blair 'froze out anyone against war'

[sabra]

Source: Mirror UK

Tony Blair ramped up the case for war and froze out anyone who opposed him, the Iraq inquiry heard yesterday.

It was also told Army chiefs warned that the action could be illegal in secret papers on the eve of invasion. Ministry of Defence head Sir Kevin Tebbit badly wanted a second UN resolution, it heard.

Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Turnbull told how Mr Blair "turned up the dial" to promote war, left out anyone against it and kept his plans to "political cronies".

He claimed Britain was "duped by the US" into backing the action and said Mr Blair, who was fixed on "regime change", failed to consider future repercussions. Lord Turnbull also claimed the ex-Prime Minister had always wanted Saddam Hussein to be ousted by force but was made to go the UN route.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/14/tony-blair-froze-out-anyone-against-war-115875-21965898/

[howard112211]

1. He should rot in a prison cell along with W and Cheney.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. They should hang Tony with the rope they used on Saddam.

War criminals should hang! Just like they did at the end of WW II!

[global1]

2. Well Maybe The Brits Will Have More Courage To Prosecute Blair........

and that might get the ball rolling here on Bush & Cheney.

It would be nice to see all three at the Hague.

[T_i_B]

10. No, we won't have the courage.

The whole of the British establishment was up to their necks in this one.

And a change of government won't change this. The Tories were just as keen on invading Iraq as Labour.

[Proletariatprincess]

3. This tells me that the British system works better than the US.

Still waiting for this kind of inquiry in the USA...not gonna happen, I fear.
Another thing that is never gonna happen in the USA is a tax increase on millionaires like the Brits just imposed raising the rate to 50%, the highest anywhere.
Maybe a parlimentary system really is better than what we have now. I would like to see the senate abolished entirely. Of course, all the branches of government are dysfunctional now, it may not make a difference anyway.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. it would seem that the last adminstration are the untouchables

and that the present admin daren't even ruffle their feathers?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. Was Blair forced by Cheney?

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. No, he really wanted to attack Saddam; he didn't need persuading

He's now said he would have done it even if they hadn't used WMD as an excuse. He said he would have worked out another way to justify an attack on Iraq.

He said: "I would still have thought it right to remove him. I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8408918.stm

Despite the fact that such an attack would have been clearly illegal (he admitted that at the time - he lied "this is not about regime change").

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[dflprincess]

8. I recommend the BBC movie "The Trial of Tony Blair"

it's a comedy (a little dated now as the U.S. president in the movie is Hillary Clinton). The premise is that somebody has to take the fall for Iraq and somehow it all falls on Tony Blair (W is said to be in treatment "again"). Even though it has some laughs, it still makes some very good points.