Guest Article: Tony Blair Showed True Moral Leadership over Iraq

Guest Contributor:  Advisory Board Member Peter Watt

5th August 2013

There has been an awful lot of noise again recently about Iraq. The overall sense was that in deciding to commit British forces in the second Iraq war Tony Blair had unquestionably committed a grossly immoral act that might or might not be illegal.

And that was it, the thing that bothered me: the absence of the moral case for freeing Iraq.

I passionately believe that the decision made by Tony Blair was the right and moral response to the circumstances we faced.  It must have been an incredibly difficult decision and one that took huge amounts of leadership – and I respect him hugely for it.

I say this not for legal reasons relating to international law. Unsurprisingly I do not believe that international law was broken and find the claims that it was to be ridiculous.

But that for me is not the central issue.  The central issue was that invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.

Millions of words have been written about the decisions over Iraq but for me it is pretty simple for five reasons: Saddam’s use of chemical weapons, the intelligence evidence on WMD, his obstruction of the weapons inspectors, Hussein’s track record of domestic brutality and his avowed aim of regional domination.

Firstly Saddam Hussein had had chemical weapons and had used them on his own people.  He had shown a willingness to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives  if necessary during the Iran – Iraq war.

Secondly there was a huge body of intelligence held by the intelligence services of multiple countries that strongly indicated that he still had active WMD programmes.  Such evidence is by its nature rarely fool proof; but ignoring it would have been a massive risk that I do not believe our prime minister had the right to do even if he wanted to.

Thirdly Saddam Hussein was refusing to allow the UN weapons inspectors to prove definitively that he no longer had any such weapons.  He said that he didn’t have them, but risking the security of the Middle East and therefore beyond on the say so of the word of Saddam would have been bonkers.

Fourthly Saddam Hussein was a brutal and murdering dictator who massacred thousands of Iraqis and used terror to maintain order.  The world is a better and safer place without him in power.

And fifthly his stated aim was to use force to dominate the entire region – a region that the world depends on for much of its oil supply.  Does that mean it was all about oil?  No; but of course this was a factor.  If Saddam managed to achieve his stated aim of taking over the oil fields in the Middle East (and if he had WMD it would have been easier) then that would be pretty devastating for our economy.

Those who get all moral about this should remember that they are pretty dependent on oil themselves.  Can you imagine any government stating that it actually wouldn’t protect our oil supplies?  They wouldn’t last long I suspect.  Just think of the panic even when the drivers of oil tankers threaten to go on strike.

To not have acted under these circumstances would have been a gross dereliction of duty by the British government.  To act was the right and moral thing to do.  Oh, and not forgetting that the UN had condemned him repeatedly and had found him in breach of its resolutions regarding cooperating with its inspectors.

Were mistakes made?  Yes they were, particularly in planning the situation after the war was over.  But the result is a democracy that’s beginning to work where there was dictatorship; and an Iraq has a growing economy and falling infant mortality.  It certainly isn’t perfect – but it’s getting better.  And you certainly don’t hear many Iraqis condemning the invasion and removal of Saddam.

Were WMD found?  No; but that doesn’t mean that the belief, based on evidence, that they existed was a lie.  If we have a defence strategy that requires 100% definitive proof that a serious threat exists before acting then I for one wouldn’t feel very safe.

So to be clear; Tony Blair made the right and indeed the moral decision on Iraq.  And I feel this every bit as passionately as those who feel that he made the wrong one.

Peter Watt is the former General Secretary of the Labour Party 2006-2007 under Prime Minister Tony Blair

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Human Security Centre.