On 7/7/2016 8:08 AM, Brian Gaff wrote:
Personally, I find it very strange that to drive a bus, fly a plane etc, you
need training and tests to make sure you know what you are doing, but nobody
seems to use this approach to anyone taking up a position of power in a
government.

Brian

Not quite true, I think you will find that cabinet level people have
quite a lot of training in various sorts of security, especially of
information and IT related.

I thought the interesting point in the Guardian article was the idea
that Blair ultimately decided he was going to support the USA almost
whatever they did (and that trying to follow the UN route would help to
curtail the lunatic fringe).

That, of course, led him into all sorts of trouble eventually but I
would argue that sometimes the job of a leader is to decide whether
"high level" considerations might trump lower level ones. Only history
in the long run can really make the judgements.

I'd say removing Saddam was a good thing but the subsequent
implementation was massively flawed. Don't forget that Saddam bought it
all down on himself, though.

Wittering on about "legality" and "dodgy dossiers" is just farting
around at the edges.

Some people wanted to charge Churchill and Bomber Harris with war
crimes. I say "Get over it".