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Philip Stevens in his Biography of Tony Blair states: ‘His politics - inextricably bound to a deep Christian faith - told him that civilised nations had the right and duty to confront suffering beyond their boundaries.’(Philip Stevens, Tony Blair: The Price of Leadership (Politico’s, 2004), page 6.) He uses this as an explanation for Blair’s intervention in other countries, such as his bombing campaign in Kosovo, and commitment of troops to end the civil war in the West African state of Sierra Leone:- ‘It was as much a matter of enlightened self-interest as morality.’(Ibid, Page 5.) According to Stevens ‘He has always been impatient of the strategic doctrine that says governments should turn their backs on tyranny and injustice in the world unless their narrow interests are threatened.’(Ibid, page 5-6.)

As a consequence of the faith* that Tony Blair holds in his own moral/religious crusade, he devised the lies, propaganda, and campaign of misinformation that led to Britain’s joining America in its illegal invasion of Iraq. The dust had barely settled in Iraq, and the bodies of innocent civilians had yet to be buried, when it became clear that Tony Blair had led Britain into the war using fraudulent claims. No weapons of mass destruction had ever been found, the evidence available to the prime minister had been studied, and it is clear to see the ways in which the prime minister and his propaganda ministers had altered the intelligence in order to justify the war.

So Tony Blair, in response to his exposed lies, did what he does best, lie. As usual his lies were a consequence of faith, so in fact they are not actually lies to Tony Blair (or those who purport to understand him), but the genuine beliefs of someone who has traded reality for fiction. For Tony Blair always returns to his moral rhetoric when reality starts to ask awkward questions about his actions. In Iraq his lies that took the nation to war are irrelevant, as the net result was that an evil dictator had been removed from power. The ignorance of Tony Blair and his desire to always move on, move forward, skip past awkward questions in the pursuit of some distant reality, serves to devalue history and truth in relation to his morals. If Tony Blair was not quite so keen to move on, he would have to assess how Saddam Hussain came to power, under whose supervision and support he carried out his worst atrocities, under what sanctions had Iraq been crippled by and an estimated 500,000 children died under?(Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director, 12 August 1999, http://www.unicef.org/reseval/iraqr.html) In removing Saddam Hussain from power another 100,000 Iraqis are estimated to have died, Tony Blair continues to argue that his removal is worth the human cost involved, and that he cannot apologise as he did the right thing.

His faith in his role of saviour of humanity precludes him from assessing the situation in real terms; the reality is that Saddam Hussain was raised into power by America and the UK. Saddam was supported through atrocities and massacres by America and the UK, his sanctions were enacted by the UN, but in reality they were almost entirely the product of America and the UK. So his removal by America and the UK simply completed a vast circle of human rights abuses, for which America and the UK are wholly accountable for.

However, Tony Blair is not alone in this situation, this is an collective, cultural ignorance, maintained by a complete lack of discussion or exposure in the mainstream media or political debate. You will never hear an opposition party questions such fundamental abuses carried out by a British government, and the unaccountably lies largely in the continuation of the same foreign policies and goals from government to government. Tony Blair has shaped New Labour as something different, as a leader he likes to think that he transcends traditional party boundaries, however, he only does so to further his own interests and power. Tony Blair is a fraud, concerned not with changing Britain, or British government for the sake of the British, or for the wider world; but simply concerned with shaping the system around his own flawed and ignorant faith. The faith starts with Tony Blair, and ends with Tony Blair, questions or discussion are not permitted; not because Tony Blair is a dictator of course, but simply because Tony Blair is always right, and therefore dissent is a waste of time.

Tony Blair has lived by his faith, whilst using it as a firm basis for policy, and basing life and death decisions around it. This is facilitated by his centralisation of power to his elite group of followers (classic dictator behaviour when you think about it), who produce the propaganda and information to support Tony Blair’s desires - as we saw in Iraq. When decisions are made in such a way - essentially being made at the will of one person - you have the reality of such ‘humanitarian intervention’ being vastly different.

Blair’s personal agenda leads him to become the evil dictator that he is supposedly out to stop in the first place - just as Anakin’s descent to Darth Vader in Star Wars is triggered by a desire to become powerful enough to do more good than the Jedi counsel, who waste their time debating policy - sounds so familiar. Look at his ‘humanitarian’ intervention in Kosovo, ‘undertaken without UN authorisation and complete with the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the use of cluster bombs.’( Mark Curtis, Blair’s Jaw Jaw means War War, October 2002, http://www.markcurtis.info/article3.html) Two weeks into the Bombing in April 1999 Tony Blair stated: ‘We will carry on pounding day after day after day, until our objectives are secured’, something that fits the ‘government’s definition of terrorism - revealed the brutal reality of NATO’s supposedly “humanitarian war” over Kosovo.’(Ibid.)

The ‘British policy towards Iraq is a microcosm of foreign policy… contempt for international law, support for US aggression, a gung-ho military interventionism, with the public viewed as a threat, whose opinion needs to be managed by concerted propaganda.’(Ibid) This is the result of Tony Blair’s crusade, which unless checked will lead to more deaths. After September 11 the prime minister would often say it had ‘changed the psychology of America’ but ‘it should have changed the psychology of the whole world.’(Philip Stevens, page 5) It would have certainly made the Crusade of Bush and Blair far easier if it had. However, the other side of this is that after Iraq, and the discovery of the concerted lies from both Tony Blair and George Bush, the psychology of the whole world should have changed. Instead it is left to a few to speak out, before New Labour extinguishes all dissent in order for Tony Blair to complete his divine mission.

*When this article refers to ‘faith’ it does so not necessarily in a religious way, instead it refers to faith as a general system of belief held by a person. This incorporates religion, but also personal experience, and subsequently personal beliefs and faith are generated, giving the ‘faith’ referred to above.