On 25 June 2014 Professor Ramesh Thakur of the Crawford
School of Public Policy, Australian National University and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy
contributed a piece on the above subject to the Australian Institute of
International Affairs’ online journal Australian
Outlook.
He begins:
Two years ago, Nobel Peace
Laureate Desmond Tutu condemned the ‘immorality’ of the Iraq invasion: ‘in a
consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should
be treading the same path as some of their African peers who have been made to
answer for their actions in the Hague’. Like the indestructible Terminator,
former British Prime Minister Tony Blair popped up recently to deny that the
lightning advance of the bloodthirsty and ruthlessly efficient ISIS (Islamic
State of Iraq and al-Sham, covering the Levant across Iraq and Syria) could be
blamed on the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Rather, in his parallel universe, the
fault lies in not intervening in Syria last year to topple President Bashar
al-Assad.
He then goes on to wonder, “Are
we to admire Blair for his chutzpah or condemn him for his shamelessness?”.
After traversing the background
to this shameful and disastrous War of Choice, its costs and the future
prospects for the Middle East he concludes:
Meanwhile the crisis confirms
the urgent need for parliamentary consent to be converted from an optional
add-on to a legally binding requirement before a democracy goes to war. It
should not be possible for a headstrong prime minister to wage war – the most
solemn foreign policy decision of all – based on whims or personal convictions.
Read the full piece at The
Chutzpah of the Iraq War Neocons and Fellow Travellers.
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