This is a shorter version of the argument in the Wrap today. I think it matters.<\/p>\n\n
There are three ways in which Britain went to war on a false prospectus. The first, well-covered, is the WMD <\/span>business. But this was, essentially, a massive failure of intelligence. It does look as if the spooks fooled themselves as much as they fooled their masters. That’s worrying and frightening, but it’s not politically culpable.<\/p>\n\n The second is the idea that we had given the UN a fair chance, but that the French had wrecked it. We had not. They had not. That’s a political flaw.<\/p>\n\n The third, and the one that took up much of Tony Blair’s speech<\/a> in the debate, was that we would exert influence with the USA <\/span>for the good, and that we had been doing so before. Never mind the lies he told about Saddam: look at the lies he told about George Bush:<\/p>\n\n This is a shorter version of the argument in the Wrap today. I think it matters. There are three ways in which Britain went to war on a false prospectus. The first, well-covered, is the WMD <\/span>business. But this was, … Continue reading
\n People ask: do the US listen to us and our preoccupations? And there is perhaps a lack of full understanding of US preoccupations after 11th September. I know all of this. But the way to deal with it is not rivalry but partnership. Partners are not servants but neither are they rivals. I tell you what Europe should have said last September to the US.<\/span> With one voice it should have said: we understand your strategic anxiety over terrorism and WMD <\/span>and we will help you meet it.\nWe will mean what we say in any UN resolution we pass and will back it with action if Saddam fails to disarm voluntarily; but in return we ask two things of you: that the US should choose the UN path<\/span> and you should recognise the fundamental overriding importance of re-starting the MEPP <\/span>(Middle East Peace Process), which we will hold you to.
\nI do not believe there is any other issue with the same power to re-unite the world community than progress on the issues of Israel and Palestine. Of course there is cynicism about recent announcements. But the US is now committed, and, I believe genuinely, to the roadmap for peace, designed in consultation with the UN<\/span>.<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"