Blair and Bush Running Scared

Attempt to justify the unjustifiable brings the first blink Blair blinked in Congress yesterday. The long stand-off, the stare-out is over

The culprits admit that there is a possibility that what they have done is wrong. Deep down, they know it was.

The British Prime Minister arrived in Congress to a long round of applause, his speech being interrupted almost at the end of every sentence with clapping and cheers. They had to show their gratitude (those who were not sleeping). Here was the partner who had joined George Bush in one of the most flagrant acts of butchery the world has ever seen, in a blatant disregard for the norms of diplomacy, the wholesale flouting of international law. The applause sounded like a nervous cough made before a major inauguration.

Inauguration it was. For the first time, Tony Blair admitted that there was the possibility that "we have got it wrong" and in which case, he is convinced, history will judge the coalition kindly because at the very least, a murderous regime has been removed.

What is a murderous regime? Is it one which still has the death penalty? Is it one which targets journalists? Is it one which massacres thousands of civilians?

Do two wrongs make a right? Is it justified to strafe civilian areas and then claim the deaths to be collateral damage, as part of a legitimate campaign to oust a dictator? Is this not murder?

Why should history turn a blind eye to murders committed by the armed forces of the UK and USA in an illegal attack against a sovereign nation, outside the auspices of the UNO? Why should it be murder when Saddam orders the execution of an opponent but not when a pilot destroys the families and the lives of Iraqi children?

History will judge Blair and Bush for what they are: callous murderers who demonstrated a total lack of responsibility, disregard for human life, derision for international law and insulted the international community, mankind and civilization in one fell swoop.

Bush and Blair will go down in history as the Butchers of Baghdad and Basra, as the two men who went too far and were not man enough to admit their errors, to back down before it was too late. Bush and Blair will go down as the two men who failed to read the situation correctly, who refused to listen to the advice of others who knew better and who adamantly and pigheadedly pushed ahead, using any excuse to justify their cause, even forgery and lies.

History will judge Bush and Blair for what they are: the two men who overstepped the line, destroyed the fabric of international diplomacy and forced centuries of civilization to do a U-turn, back into the quagmire of medieval-style politics. Only a handful of leaders fit into this black book of world history. Not only are these two men a disgrace to their nations, but a shame for mankind.

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