Making No Apologies
‘FORGET Winston Churchill and dont mention George Washington, and note that Tony Blairs speech at the Labour Party conference owed more to Elton John, as sorry became the hardest word to say.
|
| ‘Let he who is with weapons of mass destruction cast the first stone’ |
The Guardian reports that the Prime Minister had intended to say sorry for presenting dodgy information as fact in the build up to the invasion of Iraq.
But although Tony saw the word on the page, he thought better of saying it.
So, in what the paper calls some frantic last-minute rewriting, the word sorry was erased from the text, and from history.
What he did say was: The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong. I acknowledge that and accept it.
Well, that took a while. If only hed have taken so long about being made certain as to the merits of war and the apparent fact that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was ready to use them, he and Iraq wouldnt be in such a mess today.
But though he didnt say sorry yesterday, Tony does recognise that some of the fault lies with him. As the Independents frontpage headline says: BLAME ME (…up to a point).
Do I know Im right? he asked. And before the crowd could chime in – If youre going to war, its nice to be fairly certain – he answered for them.
Judgements arent the same as facts. Instinct is not science. Im like any other human being, as fallible and as capable of being wrong. I only know what I believe.
Helpfully, the Guardian publishes extracts from a few of Tony Blairs old speeches on Iraq, and, hard as we look, we cant find the word believe.
Saddam Husseins regime is developing weapons of mass destruction, said Tony on April 10, 2002.
There are literally thousands of sites, he said on June 4, 2003.
I dont concede at all that the intelligence at the time was wrong, he said on July 8, 2003.
Saddam Hussein, looking on from his prison cell, should take note. He is no longer a murderous despot – he is just another flawed human being.
In Tony Blairs eyes he is fallible. And who is hard-hearted enough to condemn fallibility, a condition as part of the human experience as vanity, pride and humility ’
Posted: 29th, September 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
