Tony Blair's Foolish Sabre-Rattling

Avudale

After Iraq/Afghanistan, any war may seem impossible to American or British governments, but that doesn't mean no war or pre-emptive strikes shouldn't ever occur.

I can't see how anyone can justify allowing the theocracy of Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

The only reasonable course of action is to strike Iran's technological capabilities and remove the threat if and when sanctions fail.

DavidDP

The Republicans won't be supporting any action. After all, they now subscribe to government by opinion poll.

Teepee

Don't Mess With Us, We're Just Crazy Enough To Do Something Crazy isn’t a good basis for negotiation. But this is exactly the argument that is dredged out when the UK tries to justify the continued development of its nuclear weapons programme – a spend of £90bn plus is already under way for the replacement of Trident. We do need to be in the persuasion game. Maybe we’d stand a better chance of getting to “go” if we were practicing what we preach and reducing not extending our own nuclear weapon capability?

J. S. G.

Tony should put his money where his mouth is. Why shouldn't the British attach and occupy Iran regardless of whether they are developing the bomb. Why try to find justifications. The West needs no such justifications as they proved to be counterproductive in case of Saddam Hussain and Iraq. It should be enough that Israel considrs the Iranian regime as the biggest threat which should be eliminated at all cost to Iranians.

Naomi Muse

Blair has no right to issue threats on behalf of anyone other than himself.

Obviously as he has made so much personal money out of politics and on the back of his previous role, he must be intending to bankroll any military action personally and would therefore not need to go to the UN or anything for Blair inc., is a separate entity and not subject to UN resolutions.

Interesting that the hubris remains dominant in the rhetoric.

Big Bob

Q. "So what, exactly, is Blair hoping to achieve with this sort of talk?"

A. $$$$$$$$$$...

Occasional Ostrich

Two redundant words at the end of your headline, I think?

Coeur de Lion

Erm, I worry about the Straights of Hormuz - the lifeline of our comfortable lifestyles - so easily blockable by a couple of Silkworm missiles or diesel-electric submarines. The threat would do it.

Wily Trout

What does he mean "we"?

Zoo keeper (Elephant House)

Mr Blair is only interested in Mr Blair.
He is a discredited peripheral figure. Or should be.
Why would anyone be interested in what he has to say?

Nick

What a bargain those tennis games were all those years ago.

Now there's Tony singing for his supper at his master's table.

King Prawn

So Blair tells the truth again and gets lambasted for doing so.

Sorry, but the only message that Obama is giving the Iranian theocrats is that he is prepared to let them have the bomb and sod the consequences.

Just like he is prepared to sacrifice the long-term security of Israel to obtain a worthless peace deal in the Middle East.

Noa Zrk

With some people "whatever it takes" means I'll use whatever means, military or diplomatic, at my disposal.

But with Blair Wabbit it means "How much do you want, Oby and Gordon will get it for you".

Beefeater

He who lives by the word, shall die by the word.

chelsea

What a hypocrite!! No Im sorry Iran you cannot have nuclear weapons but us Brits can!
Does no one realise that we are all citizens of a country that actually has weapons of mass destruction?? Why are Iran the only ones being highlighted here as a risk? Wake up!

Augustus

Just as Hitler sought to liberate humanity by murdering the Jews, so too Ahmadinejad believes he can 'liberate' the Middle East by violent eradication of Israel. When in 2006, in a cult-like ceremony, Ahmadinejad unveiled two metal containers in which were
Iran's first independently enriched uranium,
choirs thundered 'Allahu Akbar' as exotically clad dancers whirled ecstatically
around the containers and lifted them heroically towards the heavens in the style of a Maoist opera. There is a pervading ideology of martyrdom which Ayatollah Khomeini bequeathed to his successors. Life
was really valueless compared to the beginning of true life: Death. The beautiful natural world which we enjoy and admire, to him was the lowest element, indeed 'the scum of creation'. To him death is no death, but merely the transition from
this world to the world beyond, where martyrs will live on eternally in splendour.
You see, whether these martyrs win their battles, or lose them, victory is assured: Either a mundane worldly one, but a spiritual one in any event.

Whereas the majority of Iranians possibly wouldn't go along with this, the radical Islamists do appear to be capable of preparing for such a scenario. After all, in the Arab world Hitler is admired. He is admired not for building highways, or conquering Paris, but precisely for murdering Jews. We seem to be dealing here with a phantasmagoric parallel universe in which reality principles are constantly ignored, and blatant anti-Semitic paranoia and hatred rules. A universe from which the laws of reason have deliberately been excluded, and all mental and physical energy
harnessed ready to be unleashed for the anti-Jewish cause.