Wish he was still in politics, he'd have smashed this Tory shambles into atoms. Controversial maybe...
And then taken the country into an illegal war which further down the line resulted in mass terror on our streets killing all walks of life. Yep, top bloke
Nah the peace loving Tories wouldnt have supported the USA in a war thats a preposterous idea Blair made a big mistake - with the benefit of hindsight I very much doubt he would do it again but dont forget that though he was Prime minister a large majority of MP's of all parties voted for the war. it wasnt really a party issue and had there been a Tory PM at the time I think exactly the same would have happened
Lots of labour MPs voted against the war with some resigning Cabinet posts . The Tories to a man /woman voted for the war .
I'm not a fan of Kim Jong Un but I'm not sure starting a war with him would be a good call. I think Blair was badly advised but he has to take responsibility for it. Our close alliance to the US led to a destabilisation of the middle east and ultimately brought terrorism to our shores.
another leader that got elected on the back of lies Vesp... do you remember his promise of a referendum on the EU when he knew the country and many politicians on the opposition side of the house were up in arms over John Major signing Maastricht ? blair promised this in 1997, then dropped the idea, then did exactly the same again in 2004/5, both times being in the run up to general elections one more point about Blairs time in office, both the tories and the lib dems called for a referendum on europe https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/apr/20/eu.politics6
Genuine question: what would you have done? Left SH alone? Intervened later perhaps? Let America take him out solo? Diplomacy? Also, there is limited evidence that Western intervention in the middle east (such as Iraq) is wholly responsible for the genesis of ISIS or the terrorism that we have seen in London or Paris or Barcelona, etc. It certainly does not explain the rise of Al-Shabaab in Africa, does it?
He was a spent force by the time the second Gulf war occurred. He had no weapons and posed very little threat in reality. Al-Shabaab is/was the African arm of Al-Qaeda at one point. They were closely aligned. You cannot honestly believe that the UK/US invasion didn't have a significant influence on the likes of the 7/7 bombers. It prompted a huge amount of anti coalition sentiment.
The British constituted about 4% of the forces in Iraq. Had Blair refused to support America in the invasion it would have likely gone ahead anyway as this was 2003 and still part of the political aftermath of 9/11. Arguably (and this is just my opinion from what I’ve read) Britain’s involvement likely saved thousands of civilian lives in Basra as the British Armed Forces conducted a much cleaner invasion of that region than what America did further north. Civilian casualties in Basra were significantly lower compared to Baghdad where America had taken an (I think it’s called) American Troops First policy which led to the shooting of unarmed civilians en masse. Meaning Basra would have possibly been decimated had America instead of Britain conducted the operation there.
You cannot honestly believe that the UK/US invasion didn't have a significant influence on the likes of the 7/7 bombers. It prompted a huge amount of anti coalition sentiment.[/QUOTE] There is a difference between impetus and expression. Show me the evidence that Western intervention determined the expression of the 7/7 bombers' "anti-coalition sentiment". The Vietnam War created an enormous amount of anti-government "sentiment". But no one drove in to crowds at markets or blew themselves up on trains.
Whilst I agree with a lot of what you've put, the war brought Islamist extremist terrorism to UK shores. It is unlikely 7/7 etc would've happened had we not intervened.
Despite being a despicable individual, I’m not sure Iraq is any better off without Saddam. There would have been fewer lives lost on all sides.
Tbf I agree, mainly because Al-qaeda wasn’t indiscriminate like what ISIS is. To his credit Bin Laden had a policy of not attacking countries that weren’t involved in the Middle East.
