If you believe that, you're on the hard stuff and need to check into rehab.
Tuesday, Hans Blix prattled and preened before the Iraq Inquiry in London. As many waited for the truth, Blix conjured another Hans -- Christian Andersen -- as he told a pleasing fairytale, one in which War Criminal Tony Blair was as brave and true as King Arthur.
To hear Blix tell it, even when the evil witch George W. Bush came along, Tony was still true of heart.
The problem, Hans explained, was that the US was driving a runaway train and Blair was trapped on it. And, for good measure, he insisted that Blair always worked within the United Nations framework.
Many an overgrown British tot sighed contentedly, able to drift off into slumber at last knowing that empire was a US thing and that the Brits had been unwillingly pulled into an illegal war.
And like all fairytales, to believe in it, you had to suspend disbelief. You had to believe that a wooden puppet could turn into a human boy; that mermaids not only existed, they pined for washed out colorless human beings; and that, given the choice, any woman would willing step into a pair of glass slippers.
To believe Hans Blix's fairytale, you had to suspend disbelief and you had to forget a lot of details and facts. Such as the MI5 Director General refuting Tony Blair's claim that England could be attacked with WMD by Iraq.
Eliza Manningham-Buller: As I said to Lady Prashar, we regarded the threat, the direct threat from Iraq as low. We did think -- and it comes in that letter -- that Saddam Hussein might resort to terrorism in the theatre if he thought his regime was toppled, but we did not believe he had the capability to do anything much in the UK. That turned out to be the right judgment. What the letter -- has been redacted from the letter, like I say, in general terms is that is partly as a result of action we took. But I don't think the threat in the UK was anything other than very limited.
You had to forget what Blair's Deputy Legal Adviser told the Inquiry January 26th:
Committee Member Usha Prashar: Can I just then confirm, what were your views of the legal position on the use of force against Iraq before the Security Council Resolution 1441?
Elizabeth Wilmshurst: They were the same as described by Sir Michael Wood this morning, that it would be necessary to have a resolution of the Security Council, if force against Iraq were to be lawful, that the other lawful reasons for the use of force were not present at that time.
Commitee Member Usha Prashar: But there was a consistent view of all the law officers with the FCO [British Foreign & Commonwealth Office]?
Elizabeth Wilmshurst: Of all of the legal advisers within the FCO, yes.
There is so much testimony that you had to forget to believe the fairytale.
You had to, for example, forget that Blix testified, "I came out right from September 2002 on to the very end when I said, 'Yes, there might be weapons of mass destruction'."
What was Blix tasked with?
Determining whether or not Iraq had WMD. As Blix explained to the Inquiry, he thought they did. He investigated and couldn't say they didn't but he thought they did and he passed that along.
Did Iraq have WMD?
No.
Shouldn't Blix have known that?
Yes.
Blix is responsible for the Iraq War as surely as War Criminal Tony Blair and War Criminal George W. Bush.
It's obvious to all but those who really need to believe in fairytales.
