BLAIR’S WAR

For all the retroactive nay-saying, Tony Blair turns the tables on his critics with this part of his speech yesterday to the Labour Party Conference:

Imagine you are PM. And you receive this intelligence. And not just about Iraq. But about the whole murky trade in WMD. And one thing we know. Not from intelligence. But from historical fact. That Saddam’s regime has not just developed but used such weapons gassing thousands of his own people. And has lied about it consistently, concealing it for years even under the noses of the UN Inspectors. And I see the terrorism and the trade in WMD growing. And I look at Saddam’s country and I see its people in torment ground underfoot by his and his sons’ brutality and wickedness. So what do I do? Say “I’ve got the intelligence but I’ve a hunch its wrong?” Leave Saddam in place but now with the world’s democracies humiliated and him emboldened? You see, I believe the security threat of the 21st century is not countries waging conventional war. I believe that in today’s interdependent world the threat is chaos. It is fanaticism defeating reason. Suppose the terrorists repeated September 11th or worse. Suppose they got hold of a chemical or biological or nuclear dirty bomb; and if they could, they would. What then?

Bush should, in my view, say something similar at some point. I know that any concession with regard to fallible pre-war intelligence can lead to the anti-war hysterics piling on and the Democratic opportunists playing clairvoyants. But the point of concession is to say that he took the right decision, even if the intelligence turned out to be flawed, and may have to make a similar decision again. The threat has not gone away. It’s a complicated war and not susceptible to swift or easy fixes. But it’s still a war we have to fight. Or perish.

THAT LAURA-CHIRAC CAPTION: From a younger reader: “Depend Undergarments Give You the Confidence to Be You – Even in the Most Uncomfortable Situations.” From an eagle: “Jacques Chirac, in a rare and surprising move, kisses a woman’s hand instead of a tyrant’s ass.” My favorite: “I wish we’d lost Florida.”