Middle East Peace Envoy Calls For More War

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Saturday January 22, 2011 22:09 by Richard Irvine

Ex-British Prime Minister and peace envoy Tony Blair uses the Iraq War Inquiry to beat the drums for more war in the Middle East.

Middle East Peace Envoy Calls For More War

In a stunning performance before the British Iraq War Inquiry, ex-prime minister, peace envoy and winner of the Freedom Prize used the occasion to drum up support for more war in the Middle East. Turning away from the issue at hand, why he pushed Britain into an illegal war in Iraq, Blair declared that Iran “has to be confronted and changed. Iran is a looming challenge.”

Blair then set out a list of reasons why Iran needs to be confronted. Bizarrely, foremost amongst these was that Iran, a Middle-East country, has influence in the Middle-East. Evidently then only the West is permitted to have influence - read domination - in the Middle-East.

Moving on from this Blair then declared Iran’s influence to be “negative and destabilising.” Is it worth commenting here on the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War or the full hearted support for Israel? Apparently not. All these only bring peace and stability – just ask any Palestinian, Lebanese, Pakistani, Iraqi or Afghan.

Blair then decried that the Iranians do not share our values, “They disagree fundamentally with our way of life.” How dare they! Only western values are good – read opening up the economy to western domination and collusion with the phoney peace process. Any state that defies our economic and political domination must be annihilated, “if necessary, by force.” Everyone must be like us - well like us but without the wealth or influence.

Alluding to Iran’s nuclear program he then demanded that the West must stop apologising and “get its head out of the sand.” After all, at a time when Britain has pledged between 60 and 80 billion pounds to modernise its “nuclear deterrent” it is absolutely unacceptable that Iran may or may not be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

Indeed, how dare Iran threaten us by seeking means of defending itself, isn’t it defended enough already by the US bases that surround it; by the two declared and one undeclared war in its neighbouring counties; by the threats that regularly issue from the peaceniks in the US, Israel and UK? Doesn’t the West’s unambiguous support for Iraq during its eight year long war with Iran not reassure it how peaceful our intentions are?

Speaking at the same inquiry last year Blair amazingly declared that Iran posed the same kind of threat as Iraq did in 2003. In other words, no threat at all. But lunatic as Blairs’s analysis is, it does point to a single truth, any opposition to the western domination in the Middle-East is a threat. The solution then is obvious – more war.

Richard Irvine