Tony-Blair-People-should-listen-to-my-advice-on-Isis-as-I-have-been-to-war-in-Iraq-before.html

Maybe it's worth appreciating the fact that there are lessons I have learnt from the experience of having gone through the process of taking these decisions, of having to deal with the situation in Iraq where, as I say, precisely the same type of terrorist forces we were facing in Iraq in 2006-07 is exactly what we face now in 2014

Tony-Blair-People-should-listen-to-my-advice-on-Isis-as-I-have-been-to-war-in-Iraq-before.html

take it to the Things That Look Like an Onion Article But Aren't thread

kick im up the ass

not IN... UP

syntactic echoes of the phrase "i have killed before and i will kill again"

Maybe it's worth appreciating the fact that there are lessons I have learnt from the experience of having gone through the process of taking these decisions

@ggreenwald · 35m
The Blairs now own 8 homes. Number of family members enlisted to fight in all the wars Tony advocates: zero

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10625622/Euan-Blairs-mother-not-his-wife-is-partner-in-marital-home.html

Jonathan Powell, one of the former premier’s most loyal lieutenants during his time in No 10, said: ‘I see it from a different angle. He [Blair] argues that this is a new phenomenon we are facing. I don’t accept that.’

In an interview with Total Politics magazine, Mr Powell said: ‘What Tony Blair is trying to do is to look at it from the inter-faith point of view, which is something beyond me.

‘The danger is that you can end up framing these conflicts in ideological terms and return to the religious wars of the 16th Century in Europe. You don’t want to let this Sunni / Shia divide turn into a 21st Century version of the Thirty Years’ War.

i don't know whether this is genuine stupidity or a public veneer to disguise realpolitik since i'd like to think that educated policy makers don't believe that the European wars of religion were fought for doctrinal supremacy any more than the various middle eastern conflicts of the last 20 years have been

‘If you view the conflict on religious grounds you will create a religious war. That’s what we should be avoiding.’

the claim seems to be that the western framing it in schismatic terms and reifying differece in this fashion leads to the inflamation of those differences; perhaps he would be better citing the numerous examples of post-colonial disasters like rwanda where the imperial focus on racial difference led to genocide after they had left

he doesn't seem to be making an awful lot sense and he is probably overstating the amount that the west can do, for good or ill

nonetheless it is interesting to see the most devoted rats trying to swim

the best thing about jonathan powell is the contrast between him and his patrician elder brother (who pronounces his surname 'pole') one of thatcher's dearest handkerchief holders and probably like a victorian society widow these days