The pathetic sight of a man scrabbling for a better place in history

Yep, sick bags on standby - we have the frankly odious sight of Tony Blair desperately trying to justify what will probably be the biggest stain on his already deeply checkered historical repuation - the invasion of Iraq.

There's lot of shit in the article, unsurprisingly. He talks about how difficult regime change can be difficult, but ignores the fact that, as the leader of one of the coalition powers, it was his job to make it as easy as possible. For example, by not stripping the country of the whole political infrastructure. Or by making sure the troops are properly equipped. Or by having some sort of exit strategy that isn't just blind panic in the face of a deeply predictable insurgency. Yet, in amongst all the rest of the horseshit, this bit particularly stands out to me as the very pinnacle of empty rhetoric:

But he went on: "I think people sometimes think my religious faith played a direct part in some of those decisions, it really didn't."

No. No, I don't think Blair's religion played a part in his decision. In fact, had he followed the path set by the central Messianic figure in his religion he might have been less willing to commit his country to war. But that's irrelevant, since - as Blair notes - he wasn't motivated by religion. No, we know why he went to war with Iraq. He was afraid of losing favour with the US administration. He was afraid of appearing soft on security. His decision to commit troops to conflict was based on cowardice and cynical political action. There was nothing moral or Christian about his decision. And that is how he will be remembered. A spineless political charlatan, ready to fight a war for no other end than to further his political career.