Blair's blame game

AS THE conflict in Iraq escalates comments made by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair have caused outrage among observers.

Reports of mass killings of Iraqi soldiers by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have added fuel to calls for the international community to take action in the violence ridden state. Aid groups have warned that America and Britain need to intervene to prevent a wide scale humanitarian crisis emerging, telling leaders that they must take some responsibility for leaving the country ill-prepared to deal with threats following the 2003 invasion.

Meanwhile Mr Blair, who was made United Nations envoy to the Middle East in 2007, told the British Broadcasting Corporation that the current situation was inevitable and the West cannot be held accountable.

Claiming that the concept Iraq would be more stable if former leader Saddam Hussein had been left in power was simply not credible".

"Even if you'd left Saddam in place in 2003, then when 2011 happened - and you had the Arab revolutions going through Tunisia and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain and Egypt and Syria - you would have still had a major problem in Iraq," he said.

"Indeed, you can see what happens when you leave the dictator in place, as has happened with Assad now. The problems don't go away."

Mr Blair's statement has been heavily criticised by politicians, aid agencies and former military and diplomatic officials.

Writing in the Telegraph on Monday London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad. He wrote an essay on his website on Sunday that struck me as unhinged in its refusal to face facts. In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.

Tony Blair now believes that all this was “always, repeat always” going to happen. As an attempt to rewrite history, this is frankly emetic"

The British Ambassador to the United Nations at the beginning of the American led 2003 invasion, Sir Christopher Meyer,  was reported as saying: ""We are reaping what we sowed in 2003. This is not hindsight. We knew in the run-up to war that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would seriously destabilise Iraq after 24 years of his iron rule."

Both Britain and America have ruled out sending ground troops to support the embattled Iraqi forces of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. 

Mr Blair's blinkered approach to the situation may further inflame anger that his role in the 2003 invasion has not been fully investigated, and that reports on the war remain partially obscured to the public's eyes.