Blair not remorseful

LONDON. — Former British prime minister Tony Blair has strongly rejected claims that the 2003 US-UK invasion of Iraq was to blame for the current crisis gripping the country, pointing the finger instead firmly at the Maliki government and the war in Syria.
In an essay published on his website, the former prime minister said it was a “bizarre” reading of the situation to argue that the US-British invasion of Iraq had allowed the growth of Sunni jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), whose fighters have swept through towns and cities north and west of Baghdad over the past week.

“We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t. We can argue as to whether our policies at points have helped or not: and whether action or inaction is the best policy. But the fundamental cause of the crisis lies within the region not outside it.

“We have to put aside the differences of the past and act now to save the future,” says Blair, adding that force may be necessary. “Where the extremists are fighting, they have to be countered hard, with force.”

His intervention came as the Pentagon said that US defence secretary Chuck Hagel had dispatched the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush and two guided missile ships into the Gulf as a precautionary measure.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Bush will be accompanied by the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided missile destroyer USS Truxton.

The ships were expected to arrive in the Gulf on Saturday night. Kirby described the deployment as increasing Obama’s martial flexibility “should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq”, rather than signalling an imminent strike.

And in London, government officials confirmed that British military personnel could be deployed in Iraq to help tackle the growing threat to the stability of the region from Isis.

Although the Foreign Office ruled out full-scale military intervention, sources confirmed they had had discussions about sending military and police as part of a “counter-terrorism” package.

In a defence of his actions in Iraq, Blair attacked as “extraordinary” any notion the country would be stable if Saddam Hussein had stayed in power.
“The civil war in Syria with its attendant disintegration is having its predictable and malign effect. Iraq is now in mortal danger. The whole of the Middle East is under threat.”

He said it was inevitable that events across Iraq had raised the arguments over the 2003 war.
While admitting that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, he said: “What we now know from Syria is that Assad, without any detection from the west, was manufacturing chemical weapons.

“We only discovered this when he used them. We also know, from the final weapons inspectors’ reports, that though it is true that Saddam got rid of the physical weapons, he retained the expertise and capability to manufacture them.” — guardian.co.uk.