Tony Blair: Former PM Denies Military Action 'Radicalised' Muslims

BBC:

Tony Blair has denied that military intervention in the Middle East has radicalised Muslims and encouraged them to engage in acts of terrorism.

The former prime minister said the fight against Islamic terrorism would only end "when we defeat the ideology".

And Mr Blair said the death of Osama bin Laden was "immensely important".

Read the whole story: BBC

Comments

[aamfo]

11:36 AM on 10/03/2011

Tony Blair is a two faced bast*** - Even the Palestinians now realized what a big fat liar he is - He is not welcome to mediate there anymore.

[iLdoRight]

01:41 PM on 09/14/2011

Caption suggestion; "Like my "Crazy Like A Fox" face?

[qzy]

02:15 AM on 09/12/2011

He's right. Muslims were radicalised before we got there.

[robbimcmillen]

06:29 AM on 09/12/2011

What a horrible generalization.

[Yusuf Tazim]

11:58 AM on 10/02/2011

Apart from being a generalization, it doesn't make much either. That some Muslims were radical before the war doesn't mean that the invasion of Iraq didn't contribute to the radicalization of at least some other Muslims.

[Fred Ricardo]

12:10 AM on 09/12/2011

Tony Blair is an idiot and should keep out of issues involving the ME.

What do you say to this? Admit you and Bush lied....If You Repeat a Lie Is It Any less a Lie???

The occasion was a press conference with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, which took place in the White House on 31 January 2003. Here's the key portion:

[Adam Boulton, Sky News (London):] One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?

THE PRESIDENT: I can't make that claim.
THE PRIME MINISTER: That answers your question.

Under any circumstances, these answers are remarkable for their brevity and directness. No politician answers clearly and in just one sentence. Yet on this crucial matter, Bush and Blair did just that.

What they unambiguously admitted is that there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden/al Qaeda.

You may recall that bin Laden and al Qaeda are officially blamed for hatching, plotting, and carrying out the 9/11 attacks.

That's who the British reporter was referring to. Now the President and Prime Minister have said there is no link between them and the government of Iraq. Could it be any simpler?

Blair again lied and and helped lay the justification to invade Iraq. He should be in jail right now.

[Garvagh]

02:55 PM on 09/11/2011

Astonishing rubbish from Tony Blair. Even Donald Rumsfeld could see that the foolish US/UK invasion of Iraq created far more problems than existed prior to the invasion.

[wiseman103199]

10:07 AM on 09/11/2011

He is right.

[sherlockhemlock]

07:51 AM on 09/12/2011

He is wrong.

[west lothian questioner]

12:34 PM on 09/13/2011

You are right, he is wrong. Blair was wrong too.

[Bianca Patzelt]

09:46 AM on 09/11/2011

Tony Blair is an apologist. I have no respect for him whatsoever.

[tom4nash]

08:04 AM on 09/11/2011

That's right, Tony, it didn't radicalize them.

It just increased their numbers and zealotry exponentially.

[Tim Haselden]

04:46 AM on 09/11/2011

Well Tony, if Iraq didn't radicalise muslims in this country, it didn't do much to placate their concerns did it? But then you really do subscribe to the idea "Belief makes it so."
You believed every soldier had body armour, they didn't I had to fork out £5000 to equip my lads with body armour after they were told to stuff their armour with ration box cardboard, so as not upset the folks back & make you look bad.
Keep spouting the same old lies Tony, we don't believe them, I don't think we really believed you then, but we gave you the benefit of the doubt, after all , a PM wouldn't lie about sending us to war, would he? How wrong we were. Believe what you want Tony, like the little boy who cried "Wolf" too often, we don't believe you.

[American in Exile]

04:24 AM on 09/11/2011

Dear Mr Bush, Mr Cheney, Mr Blair,

You say that your military adventures in the Middle East have not radicalized Islam (more than it was). Why should I believe you? Because you always tell the truth? Because you are in a position to know who felt angry enough to engage in violence as opposed to who is just angry and prays about it?

My comment to you is this: If our entire nations were brought to a 10 year military action in multiple places around the globe because of the attack on 9/11 which destroyed a few buildings and killed roughly 3,000 innocent people how can you look us in the face and calmly say that many Muslims were not radicalized by the images of their burning countries, dead families, and destroyed societies?

I make no apologies or excuses for what those terrorists did 10 years ago, but for you to tell us that people in the Middle East were not radicalized as you invaded Iraq and increased foreign troop presences in scores of other countries makes you as bad, if not worse, than the 9-11 culprits. Shame on you.

[nete peedham]

06:03 PM on 09/10/2011

In denial 'til the end, ol' Lick-spittle.

[broadshoulder]

05:48 PM on 09/10/2011

Can this mans place in history get worse?

If he was revealed to be in a polar bear suit and savaged those kids on Svarlbad I wouldnt bat an eyelid. Carry on digging Tone....

[FearlessFreep]

04:33 PM on 09/10/2011

You didn't exactly make them more moderate, did you?

[Ithaqua]

02:53 PM on 09/10/2011

Sure Tony and Iraq was invaded cause there were WMD's there wasn't it.

Oh look both those facts were wrong.
Maybe you should toddle off before you make yourself look even more silly

[HansB]

02:50 PM on 09/10/2011

Of course the wars didn't radicalize the Muslims Tony Blair deals with, most of whom have the prefix "King", "Prince" or "Sultan" attached to their names. Having financed extremist maddrassas and Afghan warlords, after 9/11 they were only too happy to see the wrath of the US deflected away from them, against a country which had nothing to do with Islamic extremism.

And I'm sure they love Tony Blair for his role in all this, and that in their eyes he deserves every penny he gets from them for his "consultancy".