ITV Leaders Debate

Indeed. Interesting speech.

Did you vote Blair in Timmers? In 1 or all 3 elections?

I cant remember, I was never home to vote, certainly voted for him once, I would vote for him today if he was standing.

Some people dislike him because of the WMD saga and going to war in Iraq without full UN backing, I look at it like this, sooner or later Sadam had to go, none of us surely can disagree with that.

Just imagine if Blair had taken part in the TV debate the other night, he would have come out on top without a shadow of a doubt, a very good orator, unfortunately not matched by his sincerity.

This election is missing a Blair like figure, all of the present party leaders are really struggling to get their policies across to the voting public.

I think they all have their faults. None are perfect.

Thing is Tim, Saddam did keep a tight rein on his country and if he were alive today, ISIS would not be anywhere near Iraq nor would any other terrorist group. It wouldn't be so bad if the Americans actually had a plan for life after war in that country before they led the invasion. But they didn't and made it up as they bumbled along. All they cared about was the number of contracts being awarded to their friends and especially to Haliburton.

Possibly but the aftermath of 9/11 gave Blair a taste of leadership on the world stage and having experienced that, he found domestic politics really rather boring by comparison.

Gaddafi kept a tight reign on Libya for a long time.

And Mubarek was a strong president for Egypt for almost 30 years.

All these countries need a strong leader to keep society under control.

Dont forget though, both Hussein and Gadaffi had "previous". Hussein had invaded Kuwait not many years beforehand. Gadaffi too was prone to being a bit of a thug. I take the point that they kept their respective countries in some sort of order, but at a price.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait

BBC iplayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03tj0n0/storyville-20132014-17-mad-dog-gaddafis-secret-world

There is no question in my mind that both of these chaps had to go, they had been a thorn in the side of the west for long enough. They both ruled with a rod of iron, whether they kept fundamentalist at bay is debatable The Middle East has always been a mess and it always will, religion sees to that.

Yes Saddam did invade Kuwait but he lost the subsequent war and Iraq was then subjected to regular UN inspections and monitoring as part of the peace settlement; Saddam had been effectively contained. But after 9/11 Blair wanted to inflate his own importance on the world stage and concocted the dodgy dossiers to convince his new best pal, George, to go to war. Not that George rewarded him (or Britain) for his loyalty or support: I seem to recall that Britain was only awarded one post-war reconstruction project, a fairly minor one in Basra port, all the rest (numbering in the hundreds) went to US companies, many going to Haliburton or Haliburton subsidiaries.

I kind of half agree with you.

Referee. Spelling! Red card the man.

I kind of agree with Timmers. Saddam Hussein had it coming to him. They almost finished the job after the invasion of Iraq and decided against it.

My hunch is and its no better or worse than anybody elses hunch is that Blair thought he was using WMD. Wrong I know. But one can see why he thought that.

Oh poo! Halliburton, if you insist! A case of a pot calling the kettle black here, methinks!

Gotcha.

But, Halliburtons President was Dick Cheney.

You do mean following the invasion of Kuwait, when George Bush senior got cold feet and called-off the cavalry who had almost got Saddam's Republican Guard plus much of his retreating army surrounded and cut-off.

UN inspection after UN inspection found no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq.

I know.

Well, yeah.

Halliburton's - - Vice-President was indeed Dick Cheney who was against "finishing the job" at the end of the first Gulf War. Funnily enough, the reasons he gave in interview for not removing Saddam in 1991 were still pertinent for Gulf War 2 but Cheney ignored them!

Will we ever know the truth. We seem to think the worst of Blair for Britains role. But do we know his true intent?

Hussein had a history of using chemical weapons.