Tony Blair's Apology

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologized for the Iraq War, even going so far to take some responsibility for the rise of ISIS.  I am truly perplexed at why he has done this.  There is nothing to gain by this apology.  If he thought he was hounded when he held that it was a good decision, just wait for the attacks now that he has admitted guilt for a bad decision.  Sure, he has no political future to protect but history will not be kind.

 

There was a brief period when Tony Blair was the leader of the Free World.  President Clinton was happily ignoring America's traditional leadership role that seemed so unimportant with the end of the Cold War.  Blair took up the mantle and pushed for action in Kosovo, dragging Clinton along.  President Bush resumed America's leadership role.  President Obama has discarded it and there hasn't been a Tony Blair to pick it up.  The Free World is currently rudderless and the consequences are everywhere.

Tony Blair is not responsible for ISIS, not even partially.  This is post hoc ergo propter hoc logic.  If Blair must blame someone, he should be pointing his finger at Barack Obama.  Iraq had been won and was surprisingly stable after the US Surge in 2007.  The US Military was the foundation of that stability.  Had that foundation remained - as it had in places like Germany, Japan, and South Korea, ISIS could not have taken root.  Obama and Biden were proclaiming Iraq as a success of their administration in 2010!  Then we pulled out all US troops, collapse followed, and Blair is accepting some blame?  It almost reminds one of Vietnam where the US achieved success in the Paris Peace Accords - Kissinger received a Nobel Peace Prize - and then, in the wake of Watergate, the Congress cut all support to South Vietnam.  North Vietnam violated the peace accords and the US did nothing.  Collapse and millions of boat people followed.  Bush and Blair won the war but it was up to their successors to keep the peace.  Blair has inexplicably accepted blame for the failures of others.

 

Unless he has some terminal illness that has prompted this apology, Blair will live to regret it.  He did not learn from his contemporary, Bill Clinton: deny everything.  By apologizing, Blair has admitted guilt.  Imagine if Bill Clinton suddenly apologized to all the women who accused him of misconduct, if it apologized for not killing Bin Laden when he had the chance, for suborning perjury, or for lying to the American people about 'not having sex with that woman.'  Would he rise in esteem for having confessed his faults or fall for admitting guilt?  Imagine the campaign ads against his wife that would be nothing but Bill admitting guilt contrasted with Hillary blaming a 'vast rightwing conspiracy.'  Yes, it would be catastrophic.  But Clinton is too good a politician to ever do something so stupid; such is not the case for Blair.

 

Of course, Blair's apology will be used to bludgeon George W. Bush, the prime mover and shaker of the Iraq War.  Perhaps he expects to get the Colin Powell treatment.  Maybe from the US press but probably not from the British press.