Blair and forgiveness

In the same way that a tide comes in the affairs of men that, taken at full flood leads on to fortune, a low may come which, if one does not get out of it, leads on to the bottom. Tony Blair, prime minister of the United Kingdom, is in such a low. Remarkable as it is that the master spinner is merely spinning himself down further, rather than out of the mess, more reprehensible is the way he created it and his determination not to be touched by the basic humility that normally makes humans recognise their errors.

Diabolically Mr Blair persists in claiming glory for making war on Iraq although his own declared reason for doing so has not proved to exist. A just war requires justification. That translates into more than a despicable tyrant, such as Saddam Hussein had definitely been. Otherwise moral vigilantes with military muscle would be morally bound to wage wars of civil liberation in various points on the globe at any given time.

The justification put forward by Messrs Tony Blair and George W. Bush, more so the former in moral terms, was that Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. Blair even asserted that these could be mounted and unleashed within a mere 45 minutes.

Iraq was duly invaded. Famous victory was subsequently declared. US forces became an army of occupation. The US imposed its own proctor to reconstruct Iraq in its image, and replaced him by another American before he had even learned to pronounce Iraqi names properly. All of that - from warring to occupation - without the mere formality of a United Nations mandate.

The weeks and months roll by. No evidence, let alone proof, of weapons of mass destruction is established. Yet Tony Blair - who unlike George Bush should be expected to give a moral damn or be morally damned by his own values - offers not one word of self-doubt, of regret, of remorse.

Instead he arrogates to himself the right and ability to speak on behalf of history and proclaims that history will forgive him and pal George for their actions regarding Iraq.

Forgiveness presumes guilt. Yet Blair shrugs away any hint of that like water off a duck's back. Will history really forgive him? Prophecy is a very difficult art to attempt. It is much easier and safer to discern the present. The unfolding reality is that Blair stands in growing doubt and mistrust.

The fact that he sustains himself with powerful moral conviction is not allaying growing belief that political immorality was a large ingredient in the alloy of the Iraqi tale. The British prime minister did not reply to a journalist's brutal question whether he thought he had blood on his hands. Yet the blood that was shed will not be washed away by silence.

Blood continues to be shed. The occupying forces pay a regular toll at the hands of stubborn Iraqi resistance, however motivated. Iraqi lives continue to be lost. A few in both cases, but in each case one too many.

Blood was also horribly shed in a wood in Tony Blair's new England. A mild British scientist, embroiled by the media and the politicians in the burning Iraqi aftermath, could take it no more. He slit a wrist to bleed himself to death.

Tony Blair, prime minister of Britain, ally of and apologist for George W. Bush, president of the US, immediately ordered a judicial enquiry, having resisted one for weeks. He did not ask for forgiveness. He looks haggard. Yet he remains convinced that history will forgive him.

Can it really?