Speaking on 6th September at the British security think tank, Royal United Security Institute (RUSI), Tony Blair confirmed that not only (1) he hasn’t learnt any lessons from history but (2) keeps to his old policy of denying established fact and substituting them with what he is universally known for, blending of outright lies with half-truths. Remember the lies with which he lured UK into the Iraq war?
Keeping with the post-WW II role of Great Britain as “Washington’s poodle” and Blair himself is being widely called in UK as “Bush’s poodle”, he slavishly supported the Bush administration policy of regime change, ensuring the British Armed Forces participating in the war in Afghanistan and, even more controversially, the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Despite clear knowledge based on unambiguous intelligence reports Blair dishonestly argued otherwise that the Saddam Hussein regime possessed active weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), using this as a pretext to join the Iraq war, that became very unpopular among the British public. While the chief executive of any country sometimes has to indulge in falsification or misinformation because of national interests, to send soldiers to war to die because of one’s personal motivation and greed is criminal. As the casualties of the two wars mounted, that he was blatantly lying through his teeth to the British public was established beyond doubt in the course of comprehensive inquiry (2009-2016) into the circumstances that led to UK’s joining the Iraq war. Despite the fact intelligence service reported that no stockpiles of WMDs were found he told the British Parliament and public otherwise. Accused of misleading Parliament, Blair was forced to finally resign in 2007.
Blair has kept to his well-known policy of fudging facts and telling lies at will. He labelled the Taliban movement a part of the global movement of radical Islam, that though containing many different groups, share the same basic ideology. There is a fundamental difference between the Taliban and other Islamic movements. The Afghan Taliban have a strictly national Afghan outlook. All they were fighting for was to bring peace to their war-torn country by ridding it of foreign troops. Even during their first stint in power they never intended to include surrounding territories outside Afghanistan into their country. Though the matter of the Durand Line is still unresolved, the border dispute that arose from British colonial policy can be negotiated among neighbours. By agreeing to negotiate a peace treaty with the US that would allow Americans a ‘face-saving’ retreat from Afghanistan the Taliban have shown their readiness to find negotiated political solutions and stand by them, their troops stopping at the gates of Kabul is ample testimony to their discipline, command and control over their field commanders with which they managed a peaceful entry without bloodshed and without devastating the city. Negotiated solutions were sought in Panjshir, their failure caused Taliban to act swiftly and firmly to stop the rot. While Wali Masood may eventually come to some understanding and arrangement, Amrullah Saleh will be instigated by India, like he was two decades ago, to keep creating trouble. Such people need to be hunted down!
Blair further stated that Islamism, both the ideology and the violence, is a first-order security threat and, unchecked, it will come to us, even if centred far from us, as 9/11 demonstrated. That may apply to other Islamic movements but not to the Taliban. By blaming Islamism as the reason for destabilization of the Middle East and Africa Tony Blair conveniently forgets that al Qaida and other violent Islamist movements including Osama bin Laden himself were and are initially creations of western intelligence agencies. Blair stated that “especially after the fall of Afghanistan, the leading powers must unite to develop an agreed strategy. Even if initial discussions centre around Western nations, China and Russia also have an interest in countering this ideology; and our best allies are to be found in the many Muslim countries, including in the Middle East, desperate to retake their religion from extremism.”
By including Russia and China into his scenario Blair has tried to smooth over his country’s anti-Chinese and anti-Russia policy and hybrid warfare and again denies the reality of the Eurasian development. While this is just stupid and everybody who wants to can see it, the second half of Blair’s proposition is more dangerous. By implicating Muslim counties, especially the monarchies of UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar (the perception is that they are paying him as a “consultant”, he is opening another Pandora’s box to potentially strengthen divisions between Muslims and sacrifice more Muslim lives to western interests. Blair said “We need some boots on the ground and naturally our preference is for the boots to be local.” If it was not so blatantly crass, one could well quote late US Gen Patton when he is supposed to have said, to quote, “no one ever won a war by dying for his country, he won a war by making the other (whatever) die for his country”. It is very important for the Muslim world to understand the danger that Blair’s political plan implies.
Fighting proxy wars by using third world fighters will not always be possible and keeping in mind President Biden’s recent announcement that America has decided that for the foreseeable future it has a very limited appetite for military engagement, he concludes that Europe and NATO should take over from here. He suggests “Western notions of liberal democracy and freedom are exportable, or will ever take root except in the somewhat decadent terrain of Western society. Recovering confidence in our values and in their universal application is a necessary part of ensuring we stand up for them and are prepared to defend them.”
The good news is that Europe and the EU – not least due to British Brexit and for multiple other reasons – is divided and unable to develop a coherent strategy. Moreover the EU nations do not have any appetite for conflict or even the capacity to wage a war on the scale the US did – and still can! Consider the once vaunted German army and the terrible state it is in when compared to other western countries. NATO suffered from the defeat in Afghanistan, and smarting over being left out, in the final planning for a safe exit by the US. This most recent experiment of exporting western values to non-western societies has left EU members confused and ill-prepared.
Regardless of how EU or NATO try to recover and regroup, historical progress has long moved away from them and is situated today in Eurasia, led by China and Russia and the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). People must realize this change and adjust to ground realities. In the older days Sir Basil Zaharoff used to “arrange” wars at the behest of the arms manufactures like Krupp, etc. On a personal note when we (as a private security company) were firm on parting company with G4S, they were reluctant and alluded to working with Blair’s consulting firm (Email of April 16, 2011). This was a veiled threat to “come in line – or else”! Thanks to all-out support across the board in Pakistan, we outright purchased the company 100%– amicably, and were rid of G4S from Pakistan! Blair “the consultant” earns money by “creating” wars on behalf of nations with vested interest! One can only hope that the British people will finally repudiate Blair’s bankrupt and dangerous effort to stoke conflict to make money for himself!
