“Always act on the basis of the national interest.”
The Blair “demon eyes” poster devised by the Tories for the 1997 general election campaign, and reproduced here, failed because it came too soon.
Their response in the Commons.
“We do not agree that hindsight is required.”
The contention that foreign policy is the driver of Islamist terror has been comprehensively demolished.
The ongoing disaster in Libya demonstrates we are yet to realise that replacing a state with a vacuum is highly dangerous.
The former Prime Minister argues that Brexit wouldn’t get the numbers down – and defends the invasion of Iraq.
What emerges through the mists is a more-or-less standard left-wing politician, but with a sensitive nose for where the political wind will blow next.
The lesson is not that military intervention never works – it is that it will fail strategically without proper reconstruction.
If required, Britain’s removal, temporarily, from the European Court of Human Rights when forces are sent into conflict may be necessary.
Wednesday’s events in the Commons have laid to rest the ghost of the Iraq War.
So much of the present crisis – and of the intervening suffering – can be traced to our failure to move decisively against Assad two years ago.
The Prime Minister’s insistence on Parliamentary consent – which he does not need – for operational decisions is crippling Britain’s capacity to act decisively.
Plus: Why Chilcot won’t change anybody’s mind. A deliberate snub from Downing Street. And: Why hasn’t the Daily Mail replaced James Chapman yet?
Local forces are always going to trump the good intentions of foreign governments. Iraq is an object lesson in the high price of naïveté.