Tony Blair at it again . . . .

Tony Blair has been waffling away again, this time in Montreal, trying to big-up his ridiculous Faith Foundation.  Apparently McGill University has become involved in its "Faith & Globalization Initiative." I wonder why? Do its students know? I was going to read up about it but, unfortunately, found I was due to watch TV.

However in the Montreal Gazette article the following quote from his speech particularly caught my eye:-

"The single most important thing for people of one faith is to know about the others. The more you know and the less the ignorance, the less the fear of the other, and it's often the fear that creates problems."

The point he seems to overlook is that the more rational people learn about some faiths the more they fear them; not excluding the particular cult he favours.  

Tony Blair at the Chilcott Inquiry

"I believe I made the right decision", he says with glinting eye. "Believes", presumably with the same fervour that he believes in an Invisible Magic Friend. How can one not suspect him of emotional responses that has no place in the calculations and deliberations that might lead a nation into war?

Make sure Blair faces tough questions at the Iraq Inquiry

Last June Blair tried to persuade Brown to hold the Iraq Inquiry in secret. When Brown proposed a secret inquiry, 38 Degrees members were part of the outcry that forced Brown to change his mind. It's thanks to people like us that Blair is being forced to answer questions in public at all - now together we can push the inquiry team to toughen up their questioning.

• When did you first promise George Bush you'd back an invasion?
• When did you really realise Saddam Hussein probably didn't have WMD?
• Did you cover up advice that the war might be illegal?
• Why did you decide to ignore the anti-war protests by the British people?

38 Degrees | Make sure Blair faces tough questions at the Iraq Inquiry

Is Tony Blair God?

We awaken this morning to advance snippets from a forthcoming interview with TB about his religious beliefs. One wonders if, in advance of his appearance at the Chilcot enquiry, this interview is very wise. He appears to be digging himself ever deeper. He is laying open his position and exposing it to early dissection and allowing the preparation of highly tuned questioning. The full interview is due to be screened tomorrow on BBC1 which many of us will watch with great interest. But, subject to that, here is what we have learnt so far:-

1. TB would have felt it was "right" to go to war to topple Saddam even without WMDs because of the "threat" he posed to the "stability" of the region.
2. This decision was not informed by his religious faith.

As the British don't approve  of invading foreign countries unless their own security is threatened TB would have known that his only chance to carry his case with the Cabinet and parliament  would have been to concentrate on the WMD. As to the stability of the region, perhaps a country gets the leaders it deserves and a ruthless tyrant such as Saddam was the only option for keeping the lid on the seething internecine tribal rivalries; as witnessed by the post-war violence.

And so, in the admitted absence of any perceived instructions from an Imaginary Magic Friend he took on himself the decision of what was best for the thousands of unconsulted men, women and children who were thereby inevitably condemned to be killed, maimed, and have their property destroyed.

Surely these life & death decisions are those that religious believers usually reserve for their IMFs. Christian believers in particular adopt a range of positions from outright pacifism to the use of minimum force required to prevent greater evils. The greatest evil to come out of Iraq War was the death of the innocents. Thousands are gone who would otherwise have been alive, perhaps not under an ideal government but with at least hope of change; and the best way to help them would have been to work slowly behind the scenes to weaken Saddam's sway or just be ready for his eventual demise.

One is forced to the conclusion that TB believes he is somehow entitled to act in loco deus, and the sincerity of his "faith" is  highly suspect.

A Question to Tony Blair

You are purported to be earning £15M per year from consultancy and lecture fees. It would be interesting to know how much of this you are donating to help the war-injured children of Iraq.
A figure such as £14,999,999 would seem appropriate.

Tony Blair believed God wanted him to go to war to fight evil

from an article in the Telegraph:

The former Prime Minister's faith is claimed to have influenced all his key policy decisions and to have given him an unshakeable conviction that he was right.

John Burton, Mr Blair's political agent in his Sedgefield constituency for 24 years, says that Labour's most successful ever leader – in terms of elections won – was driven by the belief that "good should triumph over evil".

"It's very simple to explain the idea of Blair the Warrior," he says. "It was part of Tony living out his faith."

Mr Blair has previously admitted that he was influenced by his Christian faith, but Mr Burton reveals for the first time the strength of his religious zeal.

Mr Burton makes the comments in a book he has written, and which is published this week, called "We Don't Do God".

In it he portrays a prime minister determined to follow a Christian agenda despite attempts to silence him from talking about his faith."

quedula says:-

Many of us had niggling suspicions about this even in the days leading up to the war, but this was also a time when we  would not accept that the incidence of belief and influence of religion in society was anything but vanishingly small. How wrong we appear to have been. If this report is accurate it reveals an absolutely disgraceful state-of-affairs. The UK's participation in the Iraq war was not to protect our borders or our citizens. It was based on lies and manipulations of evidence to fulfil the agenda of a christian fanatic.  How, in the 21st. century, in an advanced, supposedly civilised and democratic country can we have allowed this to happen?