Distract and divert: How Tony Blair screens his role in Iraq War

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Mar 13:04
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20 years on, Blair lashes out at Putin to divert public attention from the atrocities he was behind in Iraq, not to mention his role in the Afghanistan war.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair addressing UK occupation troops in Iraq, May 29, 2003 (AFP)

This month, twenty years ago, the United States initiated a large military invasion of Iraq alongside its ally, the UK, without a UN mandate and in defiance of some of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in Britain.

It was the start of an eight-year occupation that resulted in the deaths of more than one million Iraqi. Former US President George Bush and former UK Prime minister Tony Blair chiefly orchestrated the horrors of the invasion and the occupation, which are, nowadays, an unavoidable part of Iraqis' daily life.

Today, shameless Tony Blair, the PM who led the UK into a cruel war, is attempting to escape his bloody role and divert public attention by deceitfully lashing out at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What did @georgegalloway tell Tony Blair weeks before the invasion of #Iraq? #USA #UK @KalimaLondon pic.twitter.com/1IsUDCzkkt
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 12, 2021

"If he didn't use that excuse (Iraq), he'd use another excuse," Blair, who is now 69, said in an interview for AFP and fellow European news agencies ANSA, DPA, and EFE.

"At least you could say we were removing a despot and trying to introduce democracy," Blair claimed, speaking at the offices of his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in central London, of course making no mention of any of the atrocities, killings, and lootings the occupation troops committed.

It is worth noting that the primary assertion that sparked the war [Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and represented an imminent threat to the US and its allies] was quickly debunked at the beginning of the US invasion, as per a report by The Intercept.

Blair has faced scathing criticism over his direct role in the Iraq war. A report was published in 2016 by the chairman of the "Iraq Inquiry", John Chilcot, whose mission was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the 2003 war. The report found that Blair "overplayed" evidence about WMDs in Iraq, although none was provided, and "ignored peaceful means" in order to send troops into the country.

Despite the millions of victims fallen at the hands of Blair's cruel war, the former PM currently works as an international advisor to an Emirati organization called the Mubadala Development Fund, which aims at mining $1 trillion worth of resources in Afghanistan. He is paid around £1 million ($1.3 million) annually.

The former Prime Minister has also been mentioned in the Pandora Papers, which suggest that he evaded $420,000 in taxes.

Tony Blair also joined US President George W. Bush in invading Afghanistan under the guise of overthrowing the Taliban.

The United States and its various western allies, including the United Kingdom, are behind many war crimes in Afghanistan, which they committed as part of their 20-year-long occupation of the country.

The United Kingdom helped Washington do its bidding in Afghanistan, and British troops are just as complicit in all the crimes and the chaotic withdrawal as their American counterparts.