Blair accused of putting war with Iran on the electoral agenda

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/30/tony-blair-iran-spin-chilcot

Tony Blair accused of putting war with Iran on the electoral agenda
Former prime minister slammed for trying to shift focus onto threat from Tehran during appearance at Chilcot inquiry

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 30 January 2010 13.01 GMT

Tony Blair has been accused of warmongering spin for claiming that western powers might be forced to invade Iran because it poses as serious a threat as Saddam Hussein.

Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Iran, accused Blair of trying to make confrontation with Iran an electoral issue after the former prime minister repeatedly singled out its Islamic regime as a global threat in his evidence to the Iraq war inquiry yesterday.

Blair said many of the arguments that led him to confront the "profoundly wicked, almost psychopathic" Saddam Hussein seven years ago now applied to the regime in Tehran.
"We face the same problem about Iran today," he told the Chilcot inquiry.

Dalton, the UK ambassador to Iran from 2002 until 2006, said it was essential that all the political parties made clear in the run-up to the general election that there would be no repeat of Blair's actions in respect of Iran.

"One result of Tony Blair's intervention on Iran – he mentioned Iran 58 times – is to put the question of confronting Iran into play in the election," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"We need to be much clearer, as voters, with our politicians and with our candidates that we expect a different behaviour and a greater integrity in our democracy next time."

..more..

[leveymg]

1. Who was it who quipped in 2003, "'Everyone wants to go to Baghdad; real men want to go to Tehran"

[Spazito]

2. Geez, what a POS BLiar is...

does he really expect the British public to buy his lies yet again? His delusion that he matters any more continues it seems.

[G_j]

9. I'm glad to hear he is getting blasted

by almost everyone

[FarCenter]

3. Iran is about 4 times larger than Iraq, and no easier to govern

[glinda]

4. Blair (or is it B-liar) shared the apocalypse thing with Bush

[malaise]

5. And the crusade mentality

Remember he is now Tony the poodle hearted.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I am sure that neither Brown nor (bad as he is) Cameron wants to drag us into Iran

Blair is a messianic religious nut, and a 19th century British imperialist born in the wrong century. Neither of which is common in current British politics. It is sad that he was PM -and a 'Labour' PM at that - at the wrong time.

He is politically finished in the UK.

[Prometheus Bound]

7. Blair's self-description: "profoundly wicked, almost psychopathic"

[Solly Mack]

8. He said Iran almost as many times as he said September 11

[G_j]

10. sad

deja vu

[Solly Mack]

11. He came up with the "2010 Question" talking point

Whereby you don't ask questions about what took place prior to March 2003 or during the whole clusterfuck, you ask instead...what would be happening in 2010 if we didn't invade...and according to Blair, Iran would be attacking everyone in 2010 if Saddam had not been removed in 2003..and that Saddam would be attacking as well.

Just another way to say pre-emption.

He kept saying over and over and over and over again, that people shouldn't be concerned with the invasion of Iraq or what he or Bush did but to remember that we will need the exact same actions to use against Iran.. in other words, people should thank Blair and Bush for giving them to tools and excuses that will allow them to invade other countries...primarily Iran.

That fucker even had the nerve to say that the torture at Abu Ghraib took "everyone by surprise" (including the White House)

[G_j]

12. I sure hope I live to see the day

Tony and pals are invited to the Hague.

Blair believes that deception, lies and pre-emption give the world a model for the future.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. It all makes Mandelson's wish for Balir to campaign for Labour in the general election even worse

Tucked away in the Mirror's interview today with Peter Mandelson is confirmation that Tony Blair will return to British politics to campaign for Labour in the general election.

The First Secretary of State (what a wonderfully Soviet-style title that is) revealed:

We want all the party's leadership -- past and present -- to be contributing. They know as well as anyone what is at stake for the country. Everyone will get stuck in. Everyone will campaign: Tony Blair, John Prescott, David Blunkett.

I doubt that Blair's return will do Labour any good. There is a genuine risk that the Iraq inquiry will dissuade voters who deserted the party over the war from returning to the fold. In seats such as Bethnal Green and Bow, which George Galloway's Respect took from Labour in 2005, the war is likely to return as an election issue. Blair's presence on the campaign trail will only exacerbate the damage to the party.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/01/british-election-general

It'd be a bloody disaster for Labour, if you ask me.