Tony Blair and Lynne Hillan - two sides of the same coin

Ask yourself this. Tony Blair led Labour to three election victories. Which of these policies were in his manifesto? :-

Capital punishment
Unlimited detention of suspects without trial or judicial process
Circumvention of international law

Regardless of whether you agree with these policies or not, they were all introduced under Tony Blair. You see under the British mandate in Iraq all of these things have happened. Whatever you think of the invasion, whatever you think of Tony Blair, all of these things have happened in Iraq. We were part of the coalition which deposed Saddam Hussein, we wrote the new rulebook and constitution. We did the same thing in Germany at the end of WWII. Even this week, Chemical Ali was hung. We put together the new Iraqi constitution. We are responsible. You may think he deserved it. That isn't the argument. The point is that we deposed a government, imposed a new one and allowed things to happen there, which we banned long ago in this country.

The problem with Tony Blair is that he didn't think "the law" applied to him and his little adventures. He totally believes he was right, so the law didn't matter. Having read the comments by the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan, with regards to national law applying to local authorities, sadly it seems she's afflicted with the same syndrome. She's lobbying to make an incoming Conservative Government let Council Leaders make up their own laws.

It seems to me that the most dangerous disease on the planet is "Leaderitis". This is where you decide that because you are leader, you know best. The unfortunate symptoms range from invading Iraq, to scrapping sheltered housing wardens. The most unfortunate effect is that people suffer. Other people.

No 10 Petition for the truth about the death of David Kelly

As you know,Lord Hutton has said that the results of the autopsy on Weapons Inspector Dr David Kelly will be supressed for 70 years. A friend of mine, Nick Page (a fine musician to boot)I has started a petition on Number 10's website. If you feel as strongly as I do that the results should be made public,please click the link below and sign it. It reads :

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make public the results of the post mortem of Government Weapons Inspector David Kelly"

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TruthaboutKelly/

If  there's nothing to hide, why hide it or 70 years? 

This link will also feature in the sidebar

British Army Chief : I now realise I'm a European, not an American

There is a fascinating report in the Telegraph concerning the tensions between the British and American army leadership during the Iraq conflict. Now as a rule the Barnet Eye doesn't cover national and international politics, there are other bloggers who do it much better, but this is too big an issue to ignore. You see I know people who served in Iraq and lost friends out there. Some are serving in Afghanistan and if this pattern is being repeated, them British servicemen are still dying.

There is a comment from Col Tanner, who served as chief of staff to General Stewart and of the entire British division during Operation Telic 3, from November 2003 to May 2004. He says the following :-

He said: “The whole system was appalling. We experienced real difficulty in dealing with American military and civilian organisations who, partly through arrogance and partly through bureaucracy, dictate that there is only one way: the American way.
“I now realise that I am a European, not an American. We managed to get on better…with our European partners and at times with the Arabs than with the Americans. Europeans chat to each other, whereas dialogue is alien to the US military… dealing with them corporately is akin to dealing with a group of Martians.
“If it isn’t on the PowerPoint slide, then it doesn’t happen.”

They detail how the Americans attacked the Medhi Army and the whole of the British sector dissolved into violence and bloodshed. Even worse :-

Gen Stewart added: “I spent a significant amount of my time ‘consenting and evading’ US orders

So we have British generals openly saying that the execution of the war was mishandled. I'm no expert on military matters, quite the opposite, but it is crystal clear to me that if the generals are carrying on like this, guys in the field will die. Our soldiers have been put in harms way by the lack of cohesion. I don't know if 1, 10 or 100 British Servicemen died as a result of all of this. What I do know is this. The whole Iraq war was based on dishonesty and executed (at a political level) by incompetents. The price was paid in blood by ordinary soldiers. If we can't work with our allies, we shouldn't have been there at all. I suspect that when the dust settles on the situation in Afghanistan, then a similar pattern will emerge. I heard Gordon Brown say earlier in the week that the purpose of the Afghanistan campaign was "to damage Al Qaeda's morale". "What are we fighting for Lads?" - "To give Osama Bin Laden the hump". It's completely bonkers.