@sister_of_mercy Said
I do feel sorry for Tony sometimes. I am very much anti-war and I didn't care for him much as PM but he should be able to leave the past behind him now that he's not prime minister anymore. The poor guy made some bad choices but that doesn't mean he should be hounded wherever he goes because of them (though I doubt he's that bothered if he's really as rich as the papers claim him to be).
Perhaps if he'd ever apologised or owned up to his mistakes then things would be different. Who knows. Makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to be prime minister.
On a purely individual basis, the hounding of Blair is distasteful. I certainly wouldn't want it to happen to me.
If he had simply left office, admitted he was wrong and the Chilcott Enquiry into the Iraq war hadn't been as conspicuously easy on him as it was..... like, for goodness sake, the questioning he faced was pathetic. They let him off the hook so EASILY...!!
If everything had been above board after Iraq and he had faced at least some penalty for his actions... if he had only told the truth... if he had taken responsibility and at the very least said he was sorry for what he did, then yes, I agree, by now it would probably have all died down.
But Chilcott (and Butler and Hutton before them) let Blair squirm off the hook. Blair lied. Again....and again.... He showed not one shred of remorse for all those deaths. He accepted not one iota of responsibility. Instead, he swanned off to America and made millions on the lecture tour of the States. His books sold by the lorry load. He preened himself on American TV and took the plaudits that the American people bestowed on him for being their "ally".
Blair profited immensely from that war, and he did so conspicuously and shamelessly. He then had the bare faced cheek to insinuate himself into the position of Special UN Peace Envoy to the Middle East. Good grief... talk about the fox guarding the hen house..!!
The man has no shame whatsoever.
What people want is justice. They want an apology. They want Blair to 'fess up. They want him to tell the truth.
All those widows and parents of servicemen who died out there. They want closure. They want to know why their sons went to war on a criminal enterprise and died for nothing.
All the countless bereaved families of Iraqis who died or were maimed by British troops. They deserve an apology and restoration.
Instead, what do they get..? Tony Blair's grinning mug as good as saying to them "Another million in my retirement fund. Thanks a lot, suckers".
Do you really think he should be left alone in peace to enjoy his ill gotten gains..?
.