Regrets

I have to be honest here, I was one of the millions taken in by Tony Blair and his case for invading Iraq, though in this case it was more about who organised and lead the "Stop the War" coalition rather than any belief in what Blair was saying. It was more of a case of what the far left support = bad for the country, still even a stopped clock can be right twice a day and I shouldn't have let my prejudices colour my actions or thoughts. I'm a bit less naive now, though I could never see me walking alongside them nor sharing a platform with them save in the most general terms. I saw them in action during the Poll Tax riots and recently during the Student Fees riots. I want nothing to do with the violent left or right in this country, I have areas where my views would be considered extreme, but I wouldn't force them on anyone, hope to persuade yes, but not with lies and not at the threat of violence. Sooner or later the chickens do come home to roost.

'I promise to tell the truth, the edited truth and nothing harmful to me about the truth...'  

H/T Theo Spark

Telegraph.

Tony Blair was heckled during emotional scenes at the Chilcot Inquiry as the former prime minister expressed regret for the loss of life in the Iraq war.
Mr Blair told the inquiry into the conflict that he regretted "deeply and profoundly" the deaths of British troops and Iraqi civilians.
Members of the audience watching him give evidence jeered at his comments, with one person shouting: "It's too late."
Mr Blair sparked anger among the families of the 179 UK personnel killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 when he insisted he had no regrets about the war at the end of his first appearance before the inquiry last year.
His voice cracking with emotion, he told the inquiry panel: "At the conclusion of the last hearing, you asked me whether I had any regrets.
"I took that as a question about the decision to go to war, and I answered that I took responsibility. 

Mr Blair said regime change in Baghdad had always been ''on the agenda'' for the Americans after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He acknowledged that it had come up when he spoke to Mr Bush by telephone on December 3 that year.

''Regime change was their policy so regime change was part of the discussion,'' he said. ''If it became the only way of dealing with this issue, we were going to be up for that.''

He added: ''The Americans, from September 11 onwards, this was on their agenda.''

I realise that we do tend to follow somewhat slavishly what the Americans want when it comes to their foreign policy, that said, when it comes to war abroad my feelings have changed. We should not be involved in extended foreign wars, if we do need to go in, it should be fast and with surgical precision then out again. Once our objectives have been met. This should of course only be the final resort after all other means have been eliminated, even then if it can be done without putting feet on the ground it should be, though I'm not so naive to believe that it can in all cases.
But what I do object too is being lied to by politicians, not Just Blair, but all of them, the term honourable member when it comes to parliamentarians has become an oxymoron, they lie, they steal they cheat and they took us into wars in countries where we should never have gone, costing us the lives of soldiers and civilians as well as stirring up a further hornets nest of Islamic extremism (yes I know the Islamic extremists started this). But what I hate most about Blair over this is that he gave the left who hate this country with a passion the moral high ground over this, he's actually made it much more harder to deal with future problems like this without his name and actions being dragged into the equation. Blair's legacy for this country has left us with a riven society, extremists in our midst planning terrorist outrages, our security forces at full stretch combating these, the loss of civil liberties, the trampling over of ancient rights and the trust we had in politicians weakened to the point of contempt for the profession, not that it's ever been particularly high, but some politicians managed to rise above the herd, Thatcher, Powell, even Lord Tebbit, oddly enough I can't think of many on the Labour side of things though and I certainly don't believe any of the current lot can rise so hight, though I did have hope for David Davis until Cameron sidelined him through his actions on personal freedom. Nor can I help but laugh at the current Labour and Lib Dem dwarfs on the benches, well I would laugh if it wasn't so serious, these are pretty much in the same mould of Blair's parliament, who would sell us all out given the means and the opportunity for 30 pieces of silver, look at their actions over the EU after all.

I wondered at the time why the government removed the death penalty for treason, I suspect I know now.

Unfortunately we are living in interesting times.