You know we have war criminals on our hands. Tony Blair on other countries he 'would have liked' to invade. He has officially gone insane with power.
Blair 'would have loved' to topple Mugabe
by Mduduzi Mathuthu
01/09/2010 00:00:00
Regime change ... Blair says he considered plan to topple Mugabe
FORMER British Prime Minister Tony Blair admits he “would have loved” to topple President Robert Mugabe militarily, but found the task “impractical” because he enjoys a “lingering support” from fellow African leaders.
The disclosure is made in Blair’s autobiography, A Journey, which was published this week.
Blair, who stood down as Prime Minister in June 2007 after a decade in power, writes: "People often used to say to me: If you got rid of the gangsters in Sierra Leone, [Slobodan] Miloševic', the Taliban and Saddam, why can't you get rid of Mugabe?
“The answer is I would have loved to, but it wasn't practical (since, in his case, and for reasons I never quite understood, the surrounding African nations maintained a lingering support for him and would have opposed any action strenuously)."
Seeking to systematise his theory of foreign interventions in regimes that are "oppressive or dictatorial", he adds: "They may pose no outside or external threat; or it may be easily contained diplomatically. It may – as with Mugabe – be impractical to intervene."
A judgment has to be made, he states. "If change will not come by evolution, should it be done by revolution? Should those who have the military power contemplate doing so?
“The leader has to decide whether the objective is worth the cost. What's more, he or she must do so unsure of what the exact cost might be or the exact price of failing to meet the objective ... In this context, by the way, indecision is also decision ... Omission and commission both have consequences.”
Blair’s latest comments will be seized on by President Robert Mugabe who has previously claimed the existence of an Anglo-American alliance to carry out “regime change” in Zimbabwe. Mugabe says the plot has assumed the form of economic sabotage, namely sanctions imposed on the country following his government’s move since 2000 to seize white commercial farmland for resettling landless blacks.
British and American officials however deny a plot to oust Mugabe, insisting instead that sanctions were imposed in response to his government’s human rights violations; the targeted killing of political opponents and electoral theft.
Comments
Am I the only one to read into this, but did Tony Blair just confess to war crimes? Like waging unprovoked wars?
(PostZambia, BBC) Radical Islam is world's greatest threat - Tony Blair
By BBC News
Sat 04 Sep. 2010, 11:00 CAT
Tony Blair has been making the rounds following the publication of his memoirs
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has described radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the world today.
He made the remark in a BBC interview marking the publication of his memoirs.
Mr Blair said radical Islamists believed that whatever was done in the name of their cause was justified - including the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Mr Blair, who led Britain into war in Afghanistan and Iraq, denied that his own policies had fuelled radicalism.
Asked about the argument that Chechens, Kashmiris, Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans were resisting foreign occupation, he said Western polices were designed to confront radical Islamists because they were "regressive, wicked and backward-looking".
The aim of al-Qaeda in Iraq was "not to get American troops out of Baghdad but to destabilise a government the people of Iraq have voted for", he told the BBC's Owen Bennett Jones in a World Service interview.
'Stronger will'
The former British leader - who now acts as the Middle East envoy for the international Quartet - said that Iran was one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam, and it was necessary to prevent it by any means from developing a nuclear weapon.
"We need to give a message to Iran that is very clear - that they cannot have nuclear weapons capability, and we will stop them," he said.
Mr Blair said he was not advocating military action, but simply saying no option could be taken off the table.
Iran denies pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, and insists its atomic work is for civilian purposes.
Mr Blair told the BBC his view of foreign policy had changed as a result of the 9/11 attacks: "After 11 September, rightly or wrongly, I felt the calculus of risk had changed.
"There is the most enormous threat from the combination of this radical extreme movement and the fact that, if they could, they would use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
"You can't take a risk with that happening."
Mr Blair said he agonised over how to respond to radical Islam and still had doubts that he was right.
These are really difficult issues, he said, but added: "This extremism is so deep that in the end they have to know that they're facing a stronger will than theirs."
Mr Blair has also expressed optimism about the prospect of peace in the Middle East. Direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians began in Washington on Thursday.
Speaking in Dublin, on the prime-time entertainment programme The Late Late Show, Mr Blair said he believed the Middle East peace process was similar to Northern Ireland - and would be successful.
He said: "I feel it can be settled. You just have to carry on."
There was a small anti-war protest outside the Dublin studio where the interview took place.
Mr Blair also told the Late Late Show that his successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown, remained a friend.
In his autobiography, Mr Blair said Mr Brown was "maddening", had "zero" emotional intelligence and sought to frustrate key reforms.
However, Mr Blair said there were many things he admired about Mr Brown and would "probably" still go for a drink with him.