Notwithstanding the media hype for his book on Iraq, Tony Blair on Saturday had a moment of reckoning.
Angry protesters who threw eggs and objects at Britain’s former prime minister had a point to convey. They were simply expressing their sense of disgust over the audacity of the British leader to go on and write a book in fantasy, mindless of the death and destruction that his jingoistic decision had brought for millions of Iraqis.
Whatever may be the fate of the book, whether it comes to be known as a bestseller or stays put on the shelves as another manuscript, Blair needs to do some soul searching.
Irrespective of what he had written in his memoirs, there are very
few people out their in the world at large prepared to buy his reasons for invading one of the most prosperous Arab countries.
The lie of weapons of mass destruction, which
the coalition forces were unable to find, despite staying put in the war-weary country for more than seven years will come to haunt Blair's personal integrity and his stint as chief executive of one the world’s enterprising democracies for all times to come.
With both Blair and U.S. President George Bush almost off the hook, with no disciplinary and judicial probe against them for waging a war in the heartland of the Middle East, the need of the hour is to put the history in order.
Intellectuals, eyewitnesses of Iraqis ordeal, and contemporary historians and media persons have a responsibility to come up with their own input. The invasion, occupation and withdrawal from Iraq now seems to be a choreographed affair, intelligently conspired by powers who wanted to redefine the 21st century with a paranoid sense of direction of their own. The riches of Iraq and, for that matter, Afghanistan need to be accounted for, and one of the greatest robberies on the face of earth brought to book.
The damage that has come Iraq’s way is a liability that needs to be paid. The Western world, which stood shoulder to shoulder, as US and Britain moved in their armies to Iraq should help rebuild the great civilisation. Just reading and eulogising what Blair has to say is of no essence.
