© AP Photo/ Hassan Ammar
London
miscalculated the strength of Iraq's opposition forces during the United Kingdom's invasion of the Middle Eastern country to topple the regime, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday.
"For sure we underestimated profoundly the forces that were at work in the region and would take advantage of change once you topple the regime," Blair said, as quoted by
The Guardian newspaper.
He added that it was a lesson for the country that "these forces of destabilization" would appear once a dictatorship is removed.
Blair's comments come ahead of the release of a much-anticipated report on the official Chilcot Inquiry into the United Kingdom's role in the Iraq War slated for July 6.
The United Kingdom was part of a US-led coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, without a UN mandate, after accusing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction. However, such weapons were never found in Iraq.
Comment: Translation: "We were hoping for a good amount of destabilization after we invaded the country. But we were pleasantly surprised to see that the amount of destabilization exceeded even our most optimistic projections!" Naturally "these forces of destabilization" will appear, when you and your allies are the ones making sure they appear, e.g., by creating death squads to instil terror into the hearts and minds of the civilian population and incite violent sectarianism.
Blair also
said this:
"There is no way of defeating these people without defeating them on the ground. Airstrikes are not going to defeat ISIS, they have got to be tackled on the ground ... The armed forces of America, the UK, France, other major countries have both experience and capability so even if we are using them in support of local forces, you have just got to decide what our objective is. Is our objective to defeat this enemy? My answer to that is yes." Earth to Blair, there is already an army fighting a "proper war" against Daesh. It's called the Syrian Arab Army. Get a clue, Tony.
Comment: Translation: "We were hoping for a good amount of destabilization after we invaded the country. But we were pleasantly surprised to see that the amount of destabilization exceeded even our most optimistic projections!" Naturally "these forces of destabilization" will appear, when you and your allies are the ones making sure they appear, e.g., by creating death squads to instil terror into the hearts and minds of the civilian population and incite violent sectarianism.
Blair also said this: "There is no way of defeating these people without defeating them on the ground. Airstrikes are not going to defeat ISIS, they have got to be tackled on the ground ... The armed forces of America, the UK, France, other major countries have both experience and capability so even if we are using them in support of local forces, you have just got to decide what our objective is. Is our objective to defeat this enemy? My answer to that is yes." Earth to Blair, there is already an army fighting a "proper war" against Daesh. It's called the Syrian Arab Army. Get a clue, Tony.