Opinion Editorials, February 2010

Watch emotional spin doctor Alastair Campbell* break down in a TV interview on the Iraq war’s 'dodgy dossier'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0TjP56U1O0

Is it genuine or just another shameless spin?

“The arch media manipulator, says the Daily Mail, “appeared for a few seconds almost to lose it altogether when he was pressed over Tony Blair's evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war”.

Apparently Campbell was so upset because Tony Blair is actually a “ totally honourable man”. Clearly Campbell is not upset by the FACT that his own dodgy dossier led to an illegal war and a genocide.

In the run up to the Iraq War, Alastair Campbell was involved in the preparation and the release of the "September Dossier" (September 2002) and the "Iraq Dossier" (February 2003). Not before too long, both documents had been proved to be heavily distorted and detached from intelligence findings. Subsequent investigations revealed that the September 2002 Dossier had been altered, on Campbell's orders, to be consistent with a speech given by George W. Bush and statements by other United States officials.

It is noticeable that Blair and Campbell repeat the same shallow argument. They insist that the decision to launch a war should not be the subject of legal scrutiny, instead, it should be regarded as a legitimate decision taken by a person in office. In the minds of these two Neocons, a state’s leader’s decisions are beyond legal examination.

If this argument is valid then the entire premise of universal jurisdiction laws is totally futile and even redundant. Politicians and state leaders can always follow Blair and suggest to us that; ‘being the person in charge, they did what they thought was the right thing to do’. Interestingly enough, such an argument could also be used by Stalin or Hitler. Like Blair they made decisions while being in office. Like Blair they believed that they were doing the right thing. 

If Blair is correct, then there is no ethical or legal argument that can justify any interventionist war whatsoever. This is good news. We have to accept that like Blair, other leaders also take decisions while in office. Saddam, for instance, also made some decisions while in office. In fact, most of us could easily live without Neocon wars, yet, Blair cannot. The genocidal man ended his recent Chilcot appearance calling for another war against Iran. Maybe Blair believes that leaders are entitled to make up such decisions while in office unless they are Muslims. 

As it happens, out of Blair’s and Campbell’s solipsistic universe, in the reality we all share together, as many as 1,366,350 Iraqis have died (so far). They had been murdered in an interventionist criminal war launched by Blair and Bush who “made a decision” to follow a dodgy dossier that was outlined by Campbell. In the ethical realm we tend to share, Campbell and Blair should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

*Alastair Campbell- Director of Communications and Strategy for the British Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997-2003).