Blair finally says something in public

[faceless]

Blair criticises manner of Saddam execution

The way in which Saddam Hussein was executed was "completely wrong", Tony Blair said tonight in his first public comment on the subject. Speaking at a Downing Street press conference with Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Mr Blair also stressed that the manner of Saddam's execution should not "blind us to the crimes he committed against his own people". The prime minister, who was on holiday in Florida at the time of Saddam's execution on December 30, has faced criticism for his subsequent silence. Mobile phone footage shot at the execution showed the former Iraqi dictator facing sectarian taunts before his death.

A week ago, when the mobile phone footage emerged, Mr Blair's deputy, John Prescott, condemned the events as "deplorable". At the time Downing Street said Mr Blair backed an inquiry into the circumstances of the execution called by Iraq's government but refused to specifically endorse Mr Prescott's comments. After the chancellor, Gordon Brown, used a television interview at the weekend to echo Mr Prescott's line, Downing Street issued a new statement calling the circumstances of the execution "wrong and unacceptable". Today, Mr Blair said his stance had remained consistent.

"As has been very obvious from the comments of other ministers and indeed from my own official spokesman, the manner of the execution of Saddam was completely wrong," he said. "But that should not blind us to the crimes he committed against his own people, including the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, one million causalities in the Iran/Iraq war and the use of chemical weapons against his own people, wiping out entire villages. So the crimes that Saddam committed does not excuse the manner of his execution but the manner of his execution does not excuse the crimes. Now I think that is a perfectly sensible position that most people would reasonably accept."

Pressed again on the subject, Mr Blair said that the manner of Saddam's execution was "wrong and unacceptable". He added: "But we should bear in mind and not allow that while saying it's wrong then to lurch into a position of forgetting the victims of Saddam, the people who he killed deliberately as an act of policy, hundreds of thousands of them in Iraq. So of course any sensible, moderate person makes those points about the scenes that we have seen, about the execution, but it should not be then translated into some sort of excuse for the crimes he committed against his own people."

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He's had 10 days to come up with that - well done him eh? Some might say that he had the right to be on holiday and therefore not to have had to reply sooner, but when the event is happening partly because of his decision to take Britain into the war you'd think he'd have the balls to back it up with a few words before now. The gutless arse.

[Brown Sauce]

"But that should not blind us to the crimes he committed against his own people, including the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, one million causalities in the Iran/Iraq war and the use of chemical weapons against his own people, wiping out entire villages."

Quite, but the fact that all the charges against Saddam were dropped a couple of days ago, we may never find out exactly who was complicit outside of the country. Who he got the weapons from, who knew about it blah blah blah.

https://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12787

Bliar is a nasty little git.

[fritz]

[eefanincan]

Some might say that he had the right to be on holiday and therefore not to have had to reply sooner, but when the event is happening partly because of his decision to take Britain into the war you'd think he'd have the balls to back it up with a few words before now. The gutless arse.

Sure he had the right to be on holiday, but his is a job that demands if something significant is going on in the world, you stop your holiday and either come home to deal with it, or at least make a comment. And if you don't want to do that, don't take the job. You can bet your ass if the Queen had died, he'd have been on the first plane home rather than out playing with Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld.

[faceless]

rather than out playing with Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld.

let's not be flippant about it - he was actually involved in some very serious lounging by the side of Robin Gibb's (BeeGees) pool!

[Brown Sauce]

or indeed lunging seriously at the side of gibb's lesbian bi druid wife.

[faceless]

or indeed lunging seriously at the side of gibb's lesbian bi druid wife.

When galloway mentioned that the other night I was a bit annoyed to be honest, there's nothing wrong with being bisexual or a druid, so why did he bring it up I wonder?

[popinjay]

"But that should not blind us to the crimes he committed against his own people, including the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, one million causalities in the Iran/Iraq war and the use of chemical weapons against his own people, wiping out entire villages."

Quite, but the fact that all the charges against Saddam were dropped a couple of days ago, we may never find out exactly who was complicit outside of the country. Who he got the weapons from, who knew about it blah blah blah.

https://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12787

Bliar is a nasty little git.

Well, we know who did it already, they just don't want the facts made more public. The US and Russians sold Hussein weapons, the US told him to invade Iran because they feared the Islamic revolution, the US lured him into attacking Kuwait then turned on him, the US covered up his gas attacks on the Kurds and blamed it on the Iranians. The US also killed a million people with sanctions over ten years. And now at least 655,000 in this war.

Blair is a mass murderer, a war criminal, and a hypocrite. If I ever saw him, I'd kick him in the bollocks.

[eefanincan]

rather than out playing with Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld.

let's not be flippant about it - he was actually involved in some very serious lounging by the side of Robin Gibb's (BeeGees) pool!

I stand corrected!

[Brown Sauce]

or indeed lunging seriously at the side of gibb's lesbian bi druid wife.

When galloway mentioned that the other night I was a bit annoyed to be honest, there's nothing wrong with being bisexual or a druid, so why did he bring it up I wonder?

Nothing wrong with it at all, I have stood with druids at Stonehenge in the "good ol' days" on midsummer solstice. As they were chanting "Hail Albion", I was chanting somewhat whisperingly it must be said, "Up the Baggies". I was taking the pee, as I hopefully make more posts here you will get my sense of humour, see where I'm coming from. It was a bit of a play on words with a previous post, the bi lesbian bit was decoration, maybe it was mis placed, I do not seek to offend.

[faceless]

I do not seek to offend.

I didn't think you were offending anyone, I was wondering why Galloway used those terms in the tone he did.

Up the Baggies indeed - haha

[Brown Sauce]

just heard the PM having a rant on HMS Albion.

Isn't it nice that they named the boat after the friendly Black Country football team