Regime Change: The British Way

“Now does he feel his secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.”

Macbeth, William Shakespeare




The dismissal of Rumsfeld in Washington raises more insistently and urgently than ever the central question in British politics – when will Blair go?

But, surely, Blair has already promised to go by next summer. There are three basic problems with this.

1) Why should we take his word on this?

2) It’s not soon enough.

3) As long as he is in office he can use his position to conspire against the public safety starting new wars and using the “war on terror” to manipulate us.

Sir Christopher Meyer, interviewed on Wednesday after the US election hinted that it would be necessary for Blair to go by January at the latest. Citizen Meyer is not alone in this appreciation. But as Ted Heath once blurted to a political associate who had just picked up the phone – how do we get rid of him?

There has been a lot of talk about impeachment but this is a lengthy process and we need Blair out soon. It also suggests a process of scapegoating which won’t help us do what is necessary: Blair is guilty but who exactly is innocent? So many people are implicated in Iraq that its hard to see where to start let alone where it will all end. The fact is that Blair’s violent inclinations were made absolutely clear by the attack on Yugoslavia and a significant section of the British public were glad to see a show of strength on the world stage.( It is only since it became a show of weakness that attitudes have shifted). And who precisely has lifted a finger to stop him? Even last year we voted him back and spurned the opportunity to support exemplary anti-war candidates like Rose Gentle. If this is not collective guilt it is not far off it.

Blair is so weakened by events in the US that it should be possible to persuade him to stand down . Admittedly, recent statements by the Margaret Becket and Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller to the effect that “we will fight them on the beaches, we will never surrender” suggest otherwise, but hopefully this is just grandstanding. They must know the game is up and if it is fear of prosecution which drives them then I see no harm in allowing Blair and other ringleaders to slip away to Florida (if the Americans will have them) to join Jose-Maria Aznar in his befuddled fantasising about ruling the world. All that matters is that the levers of power should be taken away from these people. Only then can we begin to extricate ourselves from the mess we are in.

I propose the following simple and practical programme concerning Iraq. Stop doing what we are doing , make amends for what we have done, uncover all the truth about the whole affair and begin a reappraisal of ourselves and our place in the world.

To extricate ourselves from Iraq will probably mean entering into negotiations with the Iraqi resistance who will want, if they have any sense, certain guarantees before agreeing to a ceasefire and to allow the British army safe passage out of the country( that our army does require such a safe passage appears clear from the well known fact that they are at present mainly confined to base for their own safety or driving around in areas of remote desert in order to keep out of harm’s way). Thus we require a more realistic assessment of the Iraqi situation than we have so far been able to give. We are not there protecting the Iraqis from each other but fighting and losing against Iraqi forces involved in legitimate resistance to the illegal occupation of their own country. Jeremy Greenstock has called for a comprehensive peace conference for the whole Middle East and I’m sure that the need for this will soon make itself evident.

We must take responsibility for the destruction of Iraq and must compensate the Iraqi nation for it. Since we are bankrupt a thousand times over, realistically most of the construction will be undertaken by Russia, China and others. But our particular knowledge of the mess in Iraq, stemming from the fact that we helped to cause it, gives us a special role such as in the environmental cleaning up of depleted uranium and cluster bomb damage. This in itself would be an immense task.

We need to get to the truth of every aspect of this war and know the whole history of the rise and fall of the War Party. A truth commission similar to that set up in South Africa could be the best way to go about it, the principle being that the whole truth is more important for human evolution than mere retribution.

Finally, we must take stock of our past and our present, and decide how we can relocate ourselves in the world as a nation amongst others, divested of all imperial pretension.

But first, Blair must go.