Stay classy, Tony

For some people who supported the war in Iraq the whole run-up to and conduct of the war has caused them to reconsider what they advocated for, what they enabled, and what they did. Especially in the area surrounding the hyped up intelligence, WMD's, 'smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud' nonsense that preceded the war. Some people would be ashamed of that, how the war cost thousands of soldier's lives, hundreds of thousands of civilian's lives, destabilized millions, cost trillions, and has seemed to provide little tangible benefit in the end.

Tony Blair isn't one of those people.

"If you had known then that there were no WMDs, would you still have gone on?" Blair was asked. He replied: "I would still have thought it right to remove him [Saddam Hussein]".

Significantly, Blair added: "I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat."

Obviously. But then again, "Some asshole is running his country in a despotic fashion" is less of a compelling argument than "OMGZ, you guys! We're all gonna die in an exploding hellfire of nuclear destruction! Think of the baby bald eagles!" Just ask the people in Rwanda, or Somalia, or the Sudan, or... actually, let's just say Africa and be done with it.

It's nice that when confronted with the cost of a war based on lies that resulted in nothing, the man will resort to the "Nope, still not convinced" defense while droning on and on about doing what he thought, in his heart of hearts, was right. You have to appreciate that commitment to narcissistic self-belief and self-regard. Plus he did get a kick-ass medal of freedom, and if you denigrate the Iraq war then you taint the integrity of that honored and legitimately bestowed award.

Stay classy, Tony.