Opinion- Belfast for Baghdad

I believe Blair was the best Premier we have ever had. He did many excellent things.

The minimum wage, the abolition of Clause 28 and the Primary Purpose rule, the Human Rights Act and the definitive abolition of capital punishment are all greatly to his credit. Also you can add the Equal rights legislation, handling of Stephen Lawrence case etc.

BUT he did make one mistake about the Iraq war.

Millions in Britain cheered for the Iraq War and were strongly in support of it at the time, but after it went wrong they all suddenly realised that they'd been opposed to it all along, and it was all Tony Blair's fault. I know this as I was there at that time. MP’s, the Public everyone supported the War. A few notable exceptions in Labour were the likes of Dennis Skinner and Jeremy Corbyn who has always been steadfast in his principles.

However I genuinely believe Tony Blair did that for the best reasons.

You know Northern Ireland right? Many UK Premiers have been trying to stop the terrorism there committed by IRA, no one succeeded. Blair did.

How? Why? What makes him so great that he managed to get the Good Friday agreement?

Well the only reason this rag tag bunch of murderers was able to evade the might of the British Army and the Intelligence Services is because of American support. You don’t believe me? Think about Noraid. Think how they kept getting weapons and explosives. Now think about Iran-Contra deal that USA did. You think it’s not possible that USA supported IRA in a very circuitous way? Really?

Do you really think the IRA could actually do those things without some intelligence support? Pah!

When Bush needed Blair support, he got the undertaking that USA would withdraw from supporting IRA in return for support for the war.

Remember NOBODY was supporting USA at that time.

So Blair seeing an opportunity to do real good, decided to support Bush. I know the intelligence reports etc. blah blah blah. Reality is that Blair is a very clever lawyer (barrister I believe). You think he couldn't see that the reports were not really conclusive? Of course he did.

Politics is a dirty business and he gambled that by supporting Bush he gets a prize much more valuable.

And he did.

Why else do you think IRA caved in?

Blair achieved peace in Northern Ireland after 50 years,

Let us give Blair his rightful place in history as the greatest Prime Minister we have ever had. I wish him luck with opposing Brexit.

Note from the editor: Many of our writers thinking Leyton is talking a load of Rubbish, but we believe in giving all people a voice here no matter their opinions and I think this is a perfect example of this.

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