So Tony Blair has his feet put to the fire...

Kudos to the British for holding their former leader accountable.

Would that the US and Australia did the same with Bush and Howard...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-07/chilcot-report-condemned-over-iraq-tony-blair-fights-reputation/7575608

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2009/01/14/johnhoward_narrowweb__300x330,0.jpg

We may have to wait for an Australian Labor Government to make JWH walk over the hot coals.

Then hang the bastard as they should do with Blair and Bush!

Redmond Neck wrote on Jul 7^th, 2016 at 8:32am:

We may have to wait for an Australian Labor Government to make JWH walk over the hot coals.

We've had two since Howard.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 7^th, 2016 at 8:40am:

Redmond Neck wrote on Jul 7th, 2016 at 8:32am: We may have to wait for an Australian Labor Government to make JWH walk over the hot coals. We've had two since Howard.

Then we need a better "terms of reference" for the third one!

then hang the bastard!

It was the sheer amateurism and bumbling incompetence at such a high level of Western leadership that is so appalling about this whole sorry-assed episode in British and American history - and one that is only rivalled in recent times by the criminal lack of information-sharing between the American security agencies that allowed 9/11 to happen.

Tony Blair is a two-time major political criminal for not only the WMD debacle, but also for having social-engineered the swamping of Britain's major cities with alien races and cultures through a strategy of mass-immigration.

At any other time in history this political criminal would be in the Tower of London awaiting the hangman's noose.

It took them this long to figure out the Iraq War was a scam? That is the measure of how much money some people made out if.

What is the point of leadership if not that leaders are liable to be held to account?

What does it say of a nation that does not hold its leaders to account?

What kind of leaders do we Australians want, that we would not want them to be held to public account?

What does it say of us ?

After the plebian witch hunt that followed the Vietnam war, where soldiers were largely held personally accountable for the fact that they were there in the first place, it seems the lesson Australia has learned is (thankfully) not to castigate the nation's servicemen and women, nor, at the same time, to glorify the necessary actions of war.

However, it seems we have also determined that we must maintain a stultifying silence on most if not all criticism of our leaders regarding the case for war at all.

We are certainly not clamouring for an Australian 'Chilcot' Report... And seem smugly content (perhaps more a display of moral cowardice than smugness) to hide behind our overlord, the US, by ignoring the need for any investigation into culpability or otherwise of our leaders.

Which is an interesting and indicting irony on our national character given the energy which we expend on our 'moral outrage' of boat people 'breaching our borders'... As if these ragtag fishing boats carrying its pitiful cargo were actually a foreign 'armada' - Like the one we contributed to when invading Iraq (wrongfully, as it turns out).

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 7^th, 2016 at 11:42pm:

What is the point of leadership if not that leaders are liable to be held to account? What does it say of a nation that does not hold its leaders to account? What kind of leaders do we Australians want, that we would not want them to be held to public account? What does it say of us ?

I totally agree.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 8^th, 2016 at 8:04am:

We are certainly not clamouring for an Australian 'Chilcot' Report... And seem smugly content (perhaps more a display of moral cowardice than smugness) to hide behind our overlord, the US, by ignoring the need for any investigation into culpability or otherwise of our leaders.

I totally agree.   8-)

There should be a special prison exclusively reserved for our politicians just as there is a jail a little south of Sydney that caters exclusively to the incarceration of crooked cops.

Lord Herbert wrote on Jul 8^th, 2016 at 8:23am:

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 7th, 2016 at 11:42pm: What is the point of leadership if not that leaders are liable to be held to account? What does it say of a nation that does not hold its leaders to account? What kind of leaders do we Australians want, that we would not want them to be held to public account? What does it say of us ? I totally agree.

If there's one quality the British seem to have in spades, its moral courage.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 8^th, 2016 at 9:06am:

If there's one quality the British seem to have in spades, its moral courage.

Bullshit!

For decades the UK leadership has shown zero 'moral courage' in safe-guarding the interests of its own people.

Rotherham is a case in point. While a score of City Elders sat preening themselves for yonkers as anti-racist advocates, 1,400 children were meanwhile being handed around as sex-dolls to be used and abused by the local Muslim fraternity.

There's no-one more morally gutless than British politicians and people in leadership positions.

Lots of hindsight going on here.

Lord Herbert wrote on Jul 8^th, 2016 at 9:16am:

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 8th, 2016 at 9:06am: If there's one quality the British seem to have in spades, its moral courage. Bullshit! For decades the UK leadership has shown zero 'moral courage' in safe-guarding the interests of its own people.

I said British not British politicians or British leaders...

And, of course, 'the British' is a generalisation... I'm sure there are actual examples of British craven scum.

GLII wrote on Jul 8^th, 2016 at 9:32am:

Lots of hindsight going on here.

And how unusual is it for inquiry to be conducted 'with hindsight'??