Monday, July 19, 2004
Blair should apologise for handling of war, says poll. Although would it just be another apology like last weeks? Brian Cathcart in yesterday's IoS wrote a brilliant article (now behind the iron wall of their portfolio) about how what Blair said, "As I shall say later, for any mistakes made, as the report finds, in good faith, I of course take full responsibility, but I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all" sounds like a full apology, using words like 'take full responsibility' but is in fact no such thing. The use of 'I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all' is the giveaway, as the Butler report was not about whether it was a mistake or not to 'get rid of' Saddam Hussein. Blair might as well have said 'I take full responsibility for the events of the Third Crusade but I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all' for all the relvence it has.
Still, Blair only has to survive another week and then Parliament gets let out for the summer, we're in to the silly season and when the MPs finally crawl back to work in October most of the country will probably be moaning about someone else. Blair won't apologise, even if some miracle forces him out of office between now and Wednesday because he's pretending to be your half-deaf grandad. "Mr Blair, will you apologise for your government's lying about Saddam Hussein's WMD and it's twisting of intelligence to bolster your desire for war?" "Young man, I will not apologise for the war as I believe that whippersnapper Hussein was a very bad man!" "With respect Mr Blair that's not even remotely close to what I asked you. I didn't ask you whether the war was wrong I asked you whether you apologised for misleading the country in the lead up to it?" "Saddam was a bad man. In unrelated news I've replaced my Cabinet with Seventies singing sensations Saint Winifred School's Choir." "Grandad, Grandad, we love you..."
Still, even tomorrow must seem like a long way away.
David Kay, handpicked by the CIA to find Saddam Hussein's arsenal, said Mr Blair and President George Bush should have known that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Hans Blix stirred the row by describing Mr Blair's haste to war as an "error of judgement".
[A] former intelligence chief in Britain [Sir Paul Lever] suggested that the evidence given to the Hutton inquiry by John Scarlett... had been "economical with the truth".
Bill Clinton... [said] that intelligence reports he had seen from 1992 to 2000, during his period in office, did not suggest Saddam posed an imminent threat.
Still, Blair only has to survive another week and then Parliament gets let out for the summer, we're in to the silly season and when the MPs finally crawl back to work in October most of the country will probably be moaning about someone else. Blair won't apologise, even if some miracle forces him out of office between now and Wednesday because he's pretending to be your half-deaf grandad. "Mr Blair, will you apologise for your government's lying about Saddam Hussein's WMD and it's twisting of intelligence to bolster your desire for war?" "Young man, I will not apologise for the war as I believe that whippersnapper Hussein was a very bad man!" "With respect Mr Blair that's not even remotely close to what I asked you. I didn't ask you whether the war was wrong I asked you whether you apologised for misleading the country in the lead up to it?" "Saddam was a bad man. In unrelated news I've replaced my Cabinet with Seventies singing sensations Saint Winifred School's Choir." "Grandad, Grandad, we love you..."
Still, even tomorrow must seem like a long way away.
David Kay, handpicked by the CIA to find Saddam Hussein's arsenal, said Mr Blair and President George Bush should have known that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Hans Blix stirred the row by describing Mr Blair's haste to war as an "error of judgement".
[A] former intelligence chief in Britain [Sir Paul Lever] suggested that the evidence given to the Hutton inquiry by John Scarlett... had been "economical with the truth".
Bill Clinton... [said] that intelligence reports he had seen from 1992 to 2000, during his period in office, did not suggest Saddam posed an imminent threat.
