Comment at end
22nd April, 2009
TONY BLAIR SPEAKS AT ARLINGTON THEATER, CALIFORNIA
Excerpt from Daily Nexus, Santa Barbara University
Blair often is criticized for his cooperation with former president George W. Bush during the investigation of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction and the subsequent war to topple the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. On Monday night, he defended his actions, saying he did what he felt was the right thing to do.
From Santa Barbara Independent here:
Later on, during the speech, Blair defended his actions regarding the Iraq War as what he believed was the right thing to do. “We’ve got to get away from this idea that backing a regime that is brutal and oppressive because of a tactical advantage is smart strategy. It isn’t,” he said of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, which was toppled by Coalition Forces shortly after the war began in 2003. “You can agree with what we did or you can disagree. The freedom that the average Muslim has in America or Britain is greater than in any Muslim country.”When asked on his take on the progression of radical Islam, Blair argued that the continued presence of fanaticism in the Middle East can be resolved only by internal forces.
“This issue within Islam can only be won by people within Islam, ultimately,” Blair said. “My view is that we have to engage at a very deep level. This is hard to say because sometimes it jars with people … but we have not created this problem. … We will not defeat this without standing up to it. We have to step up. Battles are not won by stepping back. We have to step up.”
SkyNews, Boulton: Blair revisits Chicago
Alistair Darling isn’t the only politician delivering a big speech today. 10 years on, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has returned to Chicago to review the historic speech he gave there which set the philosophical basis for so called ‘liberal interventionism’ – what became in practice the involvement of British troops under his command in wars from the Balkans to Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq.
MEANWHILE … BACK HOME …
Chancellor Darling delivers the Budget to his glum backbenchers, Parliament 22nd April, 2009
BROWN, DARLING & THE BUDGET ETC …
- Quentin Letts has some fun at Labour’s expense.
- Spectator: Brown gets own way at last, on 50% tax rate
- Guardian – poll – why voters are switching parties
- Martin Kettle Darling Making Best of a Bad Job: Whether the electorate is willing to buy it any longer is a different question. But the 2010 election was foreshadowed in the contrast between Darling’s speech and that of David Cameron which followed it. It will be a contest between a narrative of recovery and a narrative of catastrophe.
- Telgraph Patrick Hennessy – The day Brown finally buried Blair: Last year’s Pre Budget Report proposed a 45p top rate for incomes above £150,000 – but this was to be introduced in 2011, after the last possible date for a general election. The only way Brown can avoid breaking a manifesto pledge is by holding the next election before April 2010 – the start-date for the new 50p higher rate. The point is, however, that the tax promise was not simply a manifesto pledge , it was the very totem of New Labour and indeed of Tony Blair himself. Brown never wanted it and, while keeping to the pledge during his 10 years as Chancellor, came up with various ruses to increase taxes nevertheless, most notably the great National Insurance raid of 2002. Now he has scrapped it – and finally buried Blair’s legacy. The reaction of Blair’s remaining supporters will, I reckon, form a big part of the political narrative over the next few days, weeks and months.
- Police release all 12 “terrorist suspects”. WHY? Because they’re all innocent? A rushed job to arrest them – Bob Quick revelations? Not sufficient days to question them, find evidence for our high hurdled courts? You pays your money… taxes…
- Time for socialists to rejoin the Labour Party - all twelve of them. Great fun to read. I think!
- Highest jobless figure since before Blair won in 1997. Whooops, chancellor … prime minister! Wonder how the ‘New Socialists’ square that circle? Now that ”Tory Tony” has been gone for almost 2 years their government has sunk to new lows.
OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST
- Archbishop “concerned by Sharia deal” – NO, not the Archbishop of Canterbury, but Lahore’s Archbishop, in Pakistan.
- What are US students taught about Islam? PC history?
- Uzbekistan sentences Hizb ut-Tahrir leader & accomplices to long sentences. Here in Britain HuT is still legal DESPITE Blair’s efforts in 2005 after 7/7.
- Obama invites Middle East leaders for talks
Tags: brown, Budget, darling, obama talks middle east leaders, Santa Barbara Ca, Tony Blair speaks Arlington Theater
