Blair: Give war another chance
By politics.co.uk staff
The west should not give up on the concept of military intervention, despite the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, former prime minister Tony Blair has said.
In a speech in Chicago timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of his pivotal talk framing the Kosovo crisis as part of the challenges facing progressive states, Mr Blair urged the west not to give up on humanitarian missions.
“Many, at the time, described the speech as hopelessly idealistic; dangerous even,” he said.
“And, probably, in the light of events since then, some would feel vindicated.
“As for me, I am older, better educated by the events that shaped my premiership, but I still believe that those who oppress and brutalise their citizens are better put out of power than kept in it.”
Mr Blair gave the speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
He did accept, however, that Iraq and Afghanistan had shaken the “certainty that our power would always triumph”.
