Tony Blair – War Criminal, Narcissist, Cult of Personality

Far-call’d our navies melt away—

On dune and headland sinks the fire—

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

Lest we forget, lest we forget!

—Rudyard Kipling

TOKYO – On March 29, 2014, the Japan Times (JP), which collaborates with the New York Times, enabled a de facto war criminal, a compulsive liar, and a disgraceful former statesmen going around soliciting in Nippon. Tony Blair, the ex-prime minister of Britain, who is (co-)responsible for the violent occupation of Iraq, published a pathetic moral piece entitled ‘The ideology of those who kidnap schoolgirls’ [1].

Blair has been described throughout the world by prominent voices as a crusader [2], a pathetic and supine liar [3], a shade figure and very sad man [4], an eel [5], a scoundrel and war-profiteer [6], a psychopath [7], and a maniac [8]. His fiercest critics even compare him to mass murderers and torturers such as Augusto Pinochet of Chile, President Botha of South Africa, and Pol Pot of Cambodia [9]. And they all have a point:

“The immorality of the United States and Great Britain’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.” –Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Since leaving office in 2007, Blair is known for “jetting” the world as a self-declared peace prophet [10] and messianic moral imperialist [11] –in particular in Asia, where speaking fees easily reach $500,000 [12], (partly because the elites there are accountable to none) drawing street protests in Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Philippines:

“I am disgusted that Tony Blair has been invited to Malaysia. This man, to me, is a war criminal. Through instigating the war in Iraq, he has killed more than (former Bosnian Serb leader) Radovan Karadzic and (former Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein. Saddam has been hanged, Karadzic was recently arrested, but this man goes around the world, lecturing on the rule of law.” –Mahathir Mohamad, Former Prime Minister of Malaysia

‘Tony’ meets state leaders, dictators, corrupt officials, Eastern patriarchs, but also greedy CEOs [13] –whoever pays that day- because everyone loves to shake hands with the living personification of 21st Century Western imperialism. (America’s George W. Bush gracefully retired from public life for that.)

Doing whatever it takes to associate himself with ‘Peace,”The Blair’ is now exploiting the abduction of more than 240 Nigerian girls by Boko Haram using the JP as public relation platform for his personality cult. This spamming the world with ‘Blair faith’ (his foundation is, of course, the ‘Tony Blair Faith Foundation’) smacks of malignant self love.

“He remains in complete denial over the disaster he inflicted not only on the people of Iraq, but also on many millions throughout the Middle East as a result of the 2003 invasion.” –General Sir Michael Rose, a retired British Army general

It is understood that any criticism of Blair must be polemic because the laws of the land do not apply to him or people like him. Needless to say, he is fully backed by powerful American enablers. His speaking agency (the same as Sarah Palin’s and George W. Bush’s) is based in Washington. ‘The Blair’ is so full of himself; he reportedly receives new peace prizes and sinecures now by default and rectal infusion.

As a world-renowned critic and philosopher explained, Blair acted the “poodle” for US military interventions and is now shamelessly cashing in for it:

“The US and British invasion of Iraq was a textbook example of aggression, no questions about it. Which means that we were responsible for all the evil that follows like the bombings. Serious conflict arose, [and] it spread all over the region. In fact the region is being torn to shreds by this conflict.” –Noam Chomsky

For the sake of human solidarity, let us not give one of the greatest criminals in recent history a media campaign to shed his “crocodile tears” [14] for those African children in distress when he is directly responsible for state terrorism, military aggression, tens of thousands of civilian deaths, and over two million people displaced in Iraq alone [15]:

“One calculation is that over a million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict. And what was achieved by it? Nothing. So I think he will have to live ’til the day he dies with the knowledge that he was guilty of a war crime and the tragedies, human tragedies, that followed from it.” –Tony Benn, former British cabinet minister and MP

Spamming the Blair Faith

In the JP piece, Blair morally informs us how he is the solution to all problems – a grandiose self-advertisement campaign: “My foundation, which provided practical support to help prevent religious prejudice, conflict and extremism, has been active in Nigeria for several years, bringing together Christian and Muslim clerics to foster mutual understanding. In more than 20 countries worldwide, we have school programs that connect children of different faiths to learn about each other. Even in the most challenging places, the results are powerful. In Sierra Leone, where we are part of the campaign against malaria, we mobilize churches and mosques to work in their local communities and help families use bed nets effectively to protect themselves against a disease that still kills 750,000 pregnant women and children each year in Africa. We have reached 2 million people in an act of compassion and care, with results that are remarkable as the interfaith cooperation that produces them” [16]. That is fascinating. There is “hope” in Nigeria because Blair is there. He takes credit for all the good that happens in Africa.

There are hundreds of humanitarian experts, professors, and statesmen in Japan who can comment on Boko Haram in the JP, and worldwide it must be thousands. Why run an op-ed by Tony Blair? If you got paid for syndicating it, JP, then please say so.

Blair dwarfs all other superegos and prophets for world peace such as Sun Myung Moon, Daisaku Ikeda, Hans Kung, or Tu Weiming, etc., because he is not only the former leader of a Western nation, but he actually invaded other countries and slaughtered tens of thousands of people IN THE NAME OF HIS FAITH.

This has resulted in major political figures calling him a delusional sociopath and megalomaniac who shifts blame and guilt to others [17]:

“In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.” –Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Blair’s spectacular narcissism embarrasses wherever he goes. Remember when he wanted to become the European president [18]? When he announced the profits of his memoires would be donated to Iraqi orphans? When he ridiculed that one million protesters were somewhat irrelevant [19]? When he toured like a pop-star with his Middle East peace convoy – the very region he had brutalized? Remember when he congratulated himself on his supernatural traits such as “absorbing other people’s pain” [20]? Or when he got exposed as dickhead and religious fundamentalist by the brilliant Christopher Hitchens during ‘The God Debate’ [21]?

Blair must have become the most hated man on the planet, the synonym for a political psychopath [22], a textbook case for students of criminology and psychology [23], and, yes, an internet meme of taunt and sneer [24; 25; 26; 27; 28]. The Daily Mail published a piece: ‘Impeach Tony Blair’ [29]. He is guilty of crimes against humanity; there is no doubt about it.

At times it appears that the most savage critics would back off (just a little bit), perhaps, if only Blair had produced something of a confession; that he did what he did because he could, that war is profitable, that Iraqi casualties are lamentable but ultimately irrelevant, that Muslims are tolerable as long as they agree to live in the year 2014 of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the disintegration of the Middle East (and Russia, Iran, and China) is necessary for rebuilding it in the West ‘s image. To their disappointment, however, his autobiography wasn’t exactly a ‘Mein Kampf.’

They used to say that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were the great losers of the 20th Century, but that’s just convenient Anglophone propaganda. The truth is the collapse of the British Empire – the largest in history – was a far more significant crash (some cynics say, only London is left).

For it is when a nation endured great pain and humiliation, and when its people have lost their way, that great seducers promise spiritual relief: “We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t [30].” I rest my case.