Iraq - Blair's Toxic Legacy Continues

Tony, Tony, Tony, what are you doing ?

You just can’t leave it alone can you? Yes, some were gullible to believe your lies first time round, but now you're making a fool of yourself. I do find it incredible that Tony Blair has the gall to comment on the current situation in Iraq, calling for more Western military intervention. If he had any shame in him, he'd remain silent.

Why on earth Blair hasn't been charged with war crimes I'll never know. Drive at 35 mph in a 30 mph zone and the law is all over you like a rash. Ditto if you watch TV without a license. However, plunge Iraq into a pointless, unnecessary and illegal conflict which results in hundreds of thousands of deaths - with more deaths happening daily as a side-effect and the British judicial system simply doesn't want to know. Astonishing or what?

I truly say don't believe a word of what this lying, deceitful, shameless reptile has to say. I saw him on the Marr Show on BBC1 this morning. Interesting only the BBC gives him any airtime and continually drool on his every word. I assume he probably sees another nice little earner out of this. I am also appalled that Cameron dances to his tune regarding the Chilcott enquiry, but there again, Cameron adores the man.

I’d also like to know what exactly has Blair been doing in his role as Mr Middle-Eastern Peace Envoy? He doesn't appear to have managed to fit in any of that boring old Peace Envoy stuff in between giving speeches, increasing his property portfolio and keeping the missus in the manner to which she has become accustomed. I do wonder is there no end to his shame and meddling. He along with Bush started it all and now he's blaming today's leaders for not doing the same!

Blair, you are meant to be the ‘Middle East Peace Envoy,’ -  get out there and sort it out, assuming you're man enough?

The Last time We Listened

We must never forget that 179 British service personnel and 4,486 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2012. There were also over 100,000 Iraqi deaths. These figures are stark and seeing today’s news really makes you think, was any of it worth it? Yes, Saddam was a bad man but he kept things in check, in fact many of the leaders of the region can be regarded as tyrants and remove one or other and no surprises what will follow. Blair & Bush were not listening to any advice back in 2003 as they knew what was best for both themselves and for others.

Our intervention in 2003 did not really improve the situation for anyone, on either side. We lost many troops and suffered the 2005 London bombings. Since then we’ve had hate preachers, radicalism and more killings on our streets. Why should we risk more lives again? We have to let these countries sort things out for themselves. We cannot look after the entire world!

Iraq was always going to bite us in the backside and I guess it will come home to the UK sooner than we all think, but Blair needs to be accountable for this mess. He should be put in front of the War Crimes Court in The Hague, let them decide.  I suspect though, he will just continue to get away with it all. It's really disturbing that a politician in the UK of his rank can go on spouting his hypocrisy. And he still doesn't understand does he? It was his insane decision to support Bush's lunacy that caused this problem in the first place. Any further intervention would be akin to pouring water over fiery oil. It's time Blair was silenced as the media are manifestly guilty of giving him column inches and air time. Maybe he should be treated like Sinn Fein were during the 80s and censured.

The billions we’ve spent on these futile wars should have been spent securing our own borders.  It would have created jobs and given us security, but Blair doesn't believe in national borders, only the free movement of people who can carry out crimes on our soil and then claim "human rights" thus rubbing our noses in it, as that was an Act created by Blair as a present to Cherie.

What Military Anyway?

I find it unbelievable that Blair is again trying to drum up military action and more wars as he believes this is the solution. That's rich coming from someone who lit the original Middle East fuse and then stood back and watched the fireworks! So its not as if there isn't blood on his hands already, let’s go get some more of our boys killed. Well no Tony we won't. We didn’t go into Syria because the people spoke. Parliament got the message from us, we’ve had enough! We don’t want to see any more of our brave armed forces killed fighting another man’s war!

And just what are we going to fight it with anyway? Our Army is reduced to little more than a home defence force with just 80,000 men. It is so demoralised as a result of successive governments slashing their budgets, that we cannot even fill these depleted ranks. We now have just 60 or so active Challenger tanks to take to a war zone where, as demonstrated in Iraq, the tank is still king.

The Royal Air Force has scrapped all its tactical aircraft with the Harriers given away and Jaguars, Buccaneers and most of the Tornadoes scrapped without replacement. The Nimrods all went too, so we have little ISTARS/Intelligence or maritime capability. Thankfully, we will not have to use the Royal Navy, that’s been stripped right down on a similar scale.

Oh and out of interest just how long has Blair or a member of his family spent in the military? Zilch I think. So he’s still that same politician that wants to have the power to send other parents or sons and daughters to fight, then visit them for a photo shot wearing as much personal armour as they can get on - once it is safe there of course !

So Tony! Why don’t you lead the battle on your white charger and see how many follow you? Get your sons to enlist and go over there and we might accept your views more readily but stop trying to send other people’s children to their inevitable death. But there again, it's easy to be brave with someone else's life isn’t it?

Admit It, You Got It Wrong Tony

It is quite clear to me, the only reason Blair wants another war to happen is so he can justify his original actions. He doesn't have a clue. I wonder just what it will take to convince him that he screwed up big time? - And he still thinks people will listen to him! I suppose that by doing the opposite of what Blair advocates we will know we are doing the right thing. But by denying responsibility for what has happened he shows just how arrogant and out of touch he really is. At least George W Bush has had the decency to retire from politics. Blair has no morals, no shame and has done more to destabilise the world than anyone in the last 30 years!

His little essay in the Express does seem to be saying  ‘Do as I did.’ What else would this egocentric say? Anything otherwise would be to admit that he got it wrong. At the time, desperate for a war of his own, he ignored all pleas to prove his cause, lied his way into war, now we are suffering, whilst he roams the world gathering fortunes. The sometimes Peace envoy occupies the most expensive suite to house his entourage, costing millions to the taxpayer. He said on Marr this morning “Please understand they do things differently” but now wants the situation handled his same way.

But there again, why should you worry Tony? We pay for your protection, 24 hours a day, everyday and what a waste of money that is! It’s not a small amount either. The UK taxpayer currently has to fork out (at the last estimate) over 6 million pounds a year, and that will continue till your death - however long that takes.

Listen to the people This Time

So Tony, I say again, have you not learned anything? WE DON’T WANT ANOTHER WAR! We should never have got involved in the original one in the first place. You intervened last time going against the people of your country. Nothing has changed at all in Iraq and won't. Even if the war was justified you failed to change anything. It's as unstable now as it was before. So you have increased the risk of our country for nothing. So please, do us all a favour and shut the f**k up.

Little did we know that the Weapon of Mass Destruction was actually Blair himself, destroying both Iraq and Afghanistan. How this despicable character can expect anyone to now listen to anything he advises is beyond me. His ego seems to know no bounds in spite of having got things so spectacularly wrong. In many ways he has now become a "hate and war preacher" himself! He is drugged up with a cocktail of his own self-importance and arrogance on such an industrial scale it has become obscene. It does seem he embarrasses Britain every time he opens his mouth. 

And I still want to know when will he finally be brought in front of the war tribunal in The Hague? Lets hope history remembers him for what he really was.

Maddie – What Makes Her Case So Different?

This week, British police hunting for Madeleine McCann started searching Praia da Luz's sewer network and it emerged they need at least another week to scour land 300 metres from where she vanished. It’s been reported that Scotland Yard detectives working in the Algarve resort have pulled up manhole covers and are analysing the network of pipes below using micro cameras and fibre-optic cables.

Police have yet to say whether they have found anything significant, but Madeleine's parents - Kate and Gerry McCann - have said they were 'encouraged by the progress' of the search.

I have a few observations about this exercise, and many questions.

How Much Has Been Spent?

As much as I’ve tried, I’ve struggled to find the total amount paid out of the public purse for the search of Maddie. It does however appear to be significantly more than £5.0 Million.

Maddie went missing in 2007; I can’t find any figures for how much was spent in the first four years she was missing. A couple of figures I have found are in 2011/12 the cost, which was met by the Home Office, was £1,929,354. In addition, the figure for 2012/13 was £1,869,933. Based on these costs, those incurred in the first four years and those incurred over the past few months, the total bill must now be well in excess of £5.0million.

Why not the Portuguese Police?

Why are the Metropolitan Police investigating a missing person in Portugal without the support of the Portuguese Police who will not have a joint investigation? I suspect nothing will be found here, so it's just going through the motions and taking resources away from policing in the UK. Are we going to send detectives all over the world to search for the other missing British nationals? I doubt it! Yes, it's very sad for the family but it should be handled by the Portuguese Police. As an aside I do find it weird how our Home Secretary, Theresa May hates the Police yet funds this junket in a hope it will garner public support for her.

So the question needs to be simply, why aren't the Portuguese police doing this? Are they unwilling or just incompetent? There again to-date the Portuguese Police have proven themselves absolutely useless - there should have been a thorough investigation from the start, as would have been the case had a Portuguese (or other nationality) child gone missing here in the UK. So why didn't they do these searches seven years ago?

My heart goes out to the McCann’s but if this search is unsuccessful which I suspect it will be, given the costs involved I believe the public have the right to know what evidence the police had which they felt justified this operation.

What About The Others?

I have been following this story since the very first day. This beautiful, innocent little girl. My heart went out to her. I can just imagine how scary it must have been for her. I know it’s sad that a little girl has gone missing. But how much has this cost us over the years? Why have they favourited this child over others who are missing and other children who are ill? There are hundreds of sick children at home, who are they not getting the treatment they need because of costing's and yet they have spent millions searching for a girl who will probably never be found?

Talking to people I find it’s not just me, many people are wondering why the McCann's should get so much attention and funding when there are plenty of other small children who go missing and nothing ever happens on a scale like this! Thousands of children have gone missing since Maddie and Thousands before, so could anyone explain why Maddie is worth so much more than all the others?

As a parent, I fully agree that you would never give up, but there comes a time where you must question why the money being used to find her isn't being split to aid finding all missing children? Why only one child? Why not all of them?

Over 100.000 children a year go missing in the UK; surely these missing children deserve to have all these resources on their cases? None of them however seem to afford such high priority searches. Something is very wrong here. The mind well and truly boggles why. It would be nice to hear of some of these other missing cases now. If only every newspaper and media outlet took as much interest in the hundreds of missing children that are spirited away each year in this country.

Enough is enough for me! Tragic as it is there is little more that can realistically be done in the Maddie case. There are other missing children out there who need to be found. As I say, I do not understand why one family has received so much support from the UK police force over such a long period of time. I'm sorry but it really is time to stop.

“Suppose You Would Think Differently If It Was One Of Your Own?”

“I Suppose You Would Think Differently If It Was One of Your Own” is the response I’ve had from a number of people who have questioned my attitude. Stop there please; I am fed up reading these hypothetical comments. I would never have put my family in that situation in the first place. So parents who have not, and would not leave their young children alone at any time are completely entitled to pass judgement on the McCann's as they see fit.

If this child had been mine I would not have abandoned it in a strange apartment, in a strange country, while I went out scoffing and boozing. If it was my child (children, actually let's not forget the toddler siblings) I would not leave them alone and go out, neither would any responsible parent!

The McCann’s are not poor people which is why I cannot get over how any family which can afford to take three very young children away on holiday to Portugal couldn’t afford a babysitter for a few hours. Young kids do wake up, especially in strange surroundings.

I honestly don't know one parent that would leave their children including babies in an apartment ALONE so they could go out and eat and drink. So whilst I have a massive amount of concern for Maddie, I have little sympathy for the parents.

So Many Questions. Only One Answer?

What makes Maddie so special? Is she from the Royal Family (not that that should make a difference)? She always seems very important, but unfortunately she’s not alone, children go missing every minute, every day, no one really seems to give a toss. An aeroplane goes missing, after a month no one seems to talk about that anymore, that had children on board didn’t it?

Regrettably we are in the EU with an EU arrest warrant and Interpol, so if a little girl disappears in Portugal why is it still left to the Met and British tax payer seven years later to conduct a proper search? Makes you wonder why we want to be part of Europe doesn't it?

This entire fiasco seems to be a project into wasting as much money as possible and taking the longest time possible. As I’ve already said this is a ridiculous waste of money that the Police could be putting to better use with the many other missing child cases in this country. There again at least these police officers are doing a thorough job; sun, sea, sand and limitless overtime and expenses, what more could we and they ask for really?

I do hope they find her so that we can stop hearing about the case. But while I feel for Maddie, there are so many other missing children who don't get any publicity or indeed police action. All loved missing children deserve the same amount of time and effort in finding them. I really hope Madeline McCann is found alive one day.

And the one answer I have - Maybe don't leave your children alone in the first place. They are the most precious things you will ever have. No matter what has happened or what happens now, if the McCann’s hadn't left Maddie on her own none of this would be happening at all!