It’s Still the Iraq War, Stupid. 442


No rational person could blame Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit. So why are the Blairites moving against Corbyn now, with such precipitate haste?

The answer is the Chilcot Report. It is only a fortnight away, and though its form will be concealed by thick layers of establishment whitewash, the basic contours of Blair’s lies will still be visible beneath. Corbyn had deferred to Blairite pressure not to apologise on behalf of the Labour Party for the Iraq War until Chilcot is published.

For the Labour Right, the moment when Corbyn as Labour leader stands up in parliament and condemns Blair over Iraq, is going to be as traumatic as it was for the hardliners of the Soviet Communist Party when Khruschev denounced the crimes of Stalin. It would also destroy Blair’s carefully planned post-Chilcot PR strategy. It is essential to the Blairites that when Chilcot is debated in parliament in two weeks time, Jeremy Corbyn is not in place as Labour leader to speak in the debate. The Blairite plan is therefore for the parliamentary party to depose him as parliamentary leader and get speaker John Bercow to acknowledge someone else in that fictional position in time for the Chilcot debate, with Corbyn remaining leader in the country but with no parliamentary status.

Yes, they are that nuts.

If the fault line for the Tories is Europe, for Labour it is the Middle East. Those opposing Corbyn are defined by their enthusiasm for bombing campaigns that kill Muslim children. And not only by the UK. Both of the first two to go, Hilary Benn and Heidi Alexander, are hardline supporters of Israel.

This was Benn the week before his celebrated advocacy of bombing Syria:

Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn told a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) lunch yesterday that relations with Israel must be based on cooperation and rejected attempts to isolate the country.

Addressing senior party figures in Westminster, Benn praised Israel for its “progressive spirit, vibrant democracy, strong welfare state, thriving free press and independent judiciary.” He also called Israel “an economic giant, a high-tech centre, second only to the United States. A land of innovation and entrepreneurship, venture capital and graduates, private and public enterprise.”

Consequently, said Benn, “Our future relations must be built on cooperation and engagement, not isolation of Israel. We must take on those who seek to delegitimise the state of Israel or question its right to exist.”

Heidi Alexander actually signed, as a 2015 parliamentary candidate, the “We Believe in Israel” charter, the provisions of which state there must be no boycotts of Israel, and Israel must not be described as an apartheid state.

This fault line is very well defined. The manufactured row about “anti-Semitism” in the Labour Party shows exactly the same split. In my researches, 100% of those who have promoted accusations of anti-Semitism were supporters of the Iraq War and/or had demonstrable links to professional pro-Israel lobby groups. 100% of those accused of anti-Semitism were active opponents of the Iraq War. Never underestimate the Blairite fury at being shown not just to be liars but to be wrong. Iraq is their Achilles heel and they are extremely touchy about it.

No rational person would believe Brexit was Jeremy Corbyn’s fault. No rational person would believe that now is a good moment for the Labour Party to tear itself apart. Extraordinarily, the timing is determined by Chilcot.


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442 thoughts on “It’s Still the Iraq War, Stupid.

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  • Ann pye

    well I hope someone does. the man is culpable. he said sorry, but he should have visited every home of a lost service person losing their life because he ordered an unnecessary war.

  • Andrew Hall

    Dear Mr Murray, do you by any chance (a) have “copies of the relevant minutes” referred to in Hutton Inquiry Exhibit No. MOD/4/0007, paragraph 5, line 1, or (b) know from whom I may procure true and complete copies? It is my understanding * that neither they, nor the high-level 8 July 2003 expressed fear of being “judged culpable” for an official cover-up thereof, were transmitted by Martin Howard, DCDI, to the JIC and SoS/PS on 18 July 2003. If you do not have access to MOD/4/0007, I can send you a copy. Yours sincerely, Andrew Hall. * According, that is, to my own specifically-focused researches into this ugly precedent to my own ugly-experience-driven imminent private criminal prosecutions [as Prosecutor]. For your information, I am about start laying Informations before magistrates re: (1) official concealment of the subjects of references to “the Agreement” and “this Agreement”, (2) falsification of officially-published information of crucial importance to the lawful resolution of conflicts and (3) wide-spread official cover-up – across six arms of government – of such Misconduct in Public Office (1) & (2).

    • Ian

      Do you speak English? Your pontificating a lot of bullshit and I was just wondering what language it was. The words appear English but the essence, content, subject, theme is all hidden behind a load of pedantic bollix. I bet you have no friends!

  • G Russell

    Very interesting – I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s actually very credible to my mind…

  • Paul Ross

    IN the face of adversity Jeremy against reasoned council fought for these traitors and Zionist supporters to be given a chance of power, true to form they spat in his face at every opertuniy. He in his integrity personified the struggle of the labour movement, when all railed against him. He will be remembered as along with the likes of Skinner and MacDonald, he leads from the front in all thing honest and worthwhile

    • Jacqueline Smart

      So true! But sadly honesty and integrity are not really part of Westminster. Jeremy stands out a mile!

      • Ian

        What? What? Tell Me one constructive thing he has done, or stood up for, since taking the reigns. He had all these wonderful qualities when he was no-one. Now that he is in a position to do something he has renagde.

  • John McNeill

    Jeremy Cirbyn should be tried on charges of false pretences whilst still taking his salary and doing absolutely nothing about the pre- nor – post referendum implications. His weakness and lack of judgement, initiative and creativity are totally tantamount to theft in his guise as a leader!

  • S Pither

    It’s because of an impending general election, that’s unwinnable by Corbyn.

    • Chris Jones

      The last TWO General Elections were lost by the Labour RIGHT standing on Blairite platforms. So no lectures please.

      In May, Labour held its own in England, did less well in Wales and badly in Scotland but in the latter two countries there is a degree of national party autonomy and BOTH are run by Blairites who must take the bulk of the responsibility for the mediocre (Wales) and disastrous (Scotland) performance, not Corbyn. 13 years of Blair/Brownism is the reason Labour has lost Scotland and Corbyn cannot be expected to turn the situation around in 8 months, especially when the Scottish party is against him politically.

      Crucially, Labour’s vote was stable in the English south.

      But the best evidence that Corbyn can win important elections is the stunning victories in the mayoral elections, especially in London but also Bristol, Liverpool and Salford.

      Finally, Labour has won all four Commons by-elections with an increased majority in 3 of them and tiny 0.3% decrease in the fourth.

      • Ian

        Wonderful facts. Wonderful purveyor of political debate. Keep reading and being able to regurgitate the systems diatribe. Stay obsessed with irrelevant political isms and locations. And whilst your doing that watch Europes tentacles destroy what 80 million people died for. Watch how tyranny takes over your freedom, dumbs you down, depopulates your species with vaccines, cancer and aerosol chemicals. Watch how we are transhumanised by Political Corectness and how we evolve our genders into transgender then single gender then none gender slaves serving our Zionist masters. Keep showing the world your ability to discern left from right to centre. My fried you are delusional. All parties are the one and same coin. Democracy is a fallacy spewed into your dinner plate by the prostituded media and dinner table debate. Here comes the war. Wake up!

    • Chris Jones

      I should add that Corbyn has experienced one of the most intense and unrelenting character assassination campaigns ever from the Tory media, the whole of the Establishment, the Israel lobby, BBC, along with constant back-stabbing by his own MPs. The dire predictions of massive seat losses in May by right wing Jeremiahs were proved wrong. Given the massive destabilization campaign against Corbyn et al, the results in May were remarkably good.

    • Francis Down

      But Corbyn did alright in the local elections (despite predictions to the contrary), by-election performance has been reasonable and Labour are ahead in the last poll.

      These are facts – something you may have difficulty processing.

  • Yasmin

    Is great article. I always thought that the Blirite not only liaers but also wrong. I am looking for the truth to prevail, finally and eventually the punishment of that criminal, Blair

  • Dave

    Impartially speaking Corbyn had a good Remain campaign, delivering a greater proportion of labour voters than Cameron delivered conservative voters and his euro-scepticism was more credible and thus persuasive than Project Fear. So for Labour Remain MPs to blame him rather than Cameron for Brexit is irrational or just a dishonest pretext to remove him for other reasons.

    • michael norton

      German carmakers have said that the UK will have to accept the free movement of EU citizens in return for access to the single market.

      Matthias Wissmann, from the German Automotive Industry Association, said the UK would have to accept the “bitter pill” of free movement.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36646251

      I think Mr. Wissmann is deluded.

      If German car makers want to continue to sell their vehicles to us, they must dance to our tune.

  • Dominic Newbould

    What utter nonsense, non sequitur followed by non sequitur.
    Any Labour leadership process will not be sufficiently advanced such that Corbyn will be gone – unless he resigns, as he should.
    Corbyn has lost the confidence of a huge majority of his professional colleagues. They can not work with him and people such as me, long term LP members, cannot work with him either.
    I respected some of his lost causes, his sniping from the backbenches and his dogged tenacity, with only a narrow channel of support, but he can only do harm now. The longer he stays, the more he will cause Labour to tear itself apart, which is one thing the LP is very good at doing. He should do the decent thing and depart.

    • John

      I think its also the best and last opportunity the majority of the PLP, and you, have to push him. With the state of the Torys he has a good run at the general election and his polling will continue to improve. This is the last chance for Blairism to hold on to power in the Labour party, if it fails there should be many members of the PLP standing down before the next general election as they will have made an irrecoverable break from the majority of the party membership.

    • Francis Down

      My familly have been Labour supporters for the last 100 years and all 3 generations are disgusted by the petulant behaviour of the ~120 MPs. If they cannot serve under the leader of the Labour Party elected by an overwhelming majority of the membership, it is they who should resign and seek election as independants.

      Fat chance of that happening.

      • michael norton

        Francis, they are deserters

        if this was in the first world war they would be SHOT

  • John

    Its also their last chance before Corbyn reaps the dividend of the turmoil within the Torys. Good article, things are never that simple though.

  • Philip

    To be frank, your analysis is way too complicated. Apply Occam’s razor. Jeremy Corbin is completely ineffective and the the Labour party unelectable under the current circumstances. The last time I voted with passion was for Tony Blair (first time around); but by then I’d have voted for a raddled sheep as an alternative to the years of Thatcherism, topped off by Major. After that I could never vote Labour again, and it was evident from day one that Corbyn was no statesman. I imagine the loathsome David Cameron must have thought he was being savaged by a dead sheep at PMQs. Corbyn is almost certainly a very nice man, as everyone says, but about as much use as Michael Foot in terms of making the Labour party electable. It’s a wonder the revolt didn’t happen sooner.

    Too London-centric. Not only media-unsavvy but media bloody ignorant. Old school megaphone and rally man. Preaching to the choir.

    In relatively calm times, I think he could have worked as an advocate for the disadvantaged. But now we need a wartime consiglieri, and he is just not it. He could have held Cameron to account for his lies about the referendum, and his cowardice in stepping down, but no … another missed opportunity. His front bench were never convinced, and this was always going to happen, but the Chilcot report is now a monumental non-event (like all such reports); what can it tell us that we don’t already know? It’s yesterday’s news. Another few thousand quid pissed away on post-analysis of the glaringly bleeding obvious.

    Hilary Benn … what can one say? Given who his father was, there must have been a spontaneous genetic mutation.

    The Labour movement I had such affection for for so long is basically moribund. We now officially live in a one party state. Whoever takes over we’re looking at 3 more terms of Conservative rule.

    But yes, your conspiracy theory is better copy. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

  • Rwth Hunt

    I really admire Daniel Barenboim. He is Jewish, probably Israeli. He created with Palestinians the Divan Orchestra. It is equally split between Israeli and Palestinian musicians who sit where their instruments are located in a standard Symphony Orchestra. So I am not Anti Israeli and definitely not antisemitic. I am not Jewish myself even if I have a Jewish first name. I despise the behaviour of a state that attacks families, cuts them off from their olive plantations and water supplies. That said, I don’t want Israel to be removed from the Middle East. I just want a two state solution. I want to cease any relations with Saudi Arabia.

    So the Chilcot enquiry has to focus on the insistence on the Iraq war even though Hans Blix after months of investigation saw no sign of weapons of mass destruction. He really put his back into it. But this government went into Iraq abandoning the campaign in Afghanistan which blew up again and would have stayed down if Iraq had been left in peace. There were no WMDs. Tony Blair lied. Saddam Hussain was pretty vile, but comparing him with the other alternatives he was as an agnostic, the best choice of no choice. He kept the country together even if he attacked the Kurds. Iran, heavily funded by the US, attacked Iraq in a war they eventually lost. So the US and Britain had to go in anyway. Yes, it’s all down to the US and Blair.

    Corbyn stayed clear. He did not subscribe to the Iraq war or any other war. That’s why they hate him. I’m sure the Blairites are trying to keep Blair out of prison. Some neutrals have been threatened to comply.

  • Enver Masud

    The Iraq war was a war crime, period. Former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor at the first Nuremberg trial, called waging aggressive war “the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole”, said Benjamin B. Ferencz, in a tribute to Jackson.

    “The same view,” Ferencz, himself a prosecutor at Nuremburg, wrote, “would later be confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Far East. It was also confirmed in the detailed judgment in the ‘Ministries Case’ of the Subsequent Proceedings held at Nuremberg.”

    http://www.twf.org/News/Y2005/0629-FtBragg.html

  • rodger nash

    Superb argument. Thank you for this.

    Also, this was my first visit to your blog. I will be back, stealing your reason and feeding it in bite-sized xhunks to my twitter and facebook in the hopes of educating my friends. I hope you don’t mind. x.

  • Isabel McNab

    They have a fight on their hands because the membership will return Jeremy Corbyn…he I’d incorruptible and therein lies their problem. It’s time fir decency, honesty and humanity. It’s time people ere held accountable!

  • Dude Swheatie of the Kilburn Unemployed

    You say: “No rational person could blame Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit.”
    I would not be surprised if an impetus for the current turmoil — even among non-Blairites wiithin Labour Parliamentarians — is their grief for the loss of murdered colleague Jo Cox. It can be all too easy to want to ‘lash out’ at such a loss. And of course, as you point out, the Brexit vote gives a smoke screen.

    I would also point out that the foundations for many of the really nasty ‘welfare reforms’ that the Conservatives are now pushing through were really piloted by Blairites. In April 2010, Sheffield Forum reported that a much harsher test for the ‘Employment & Support Allowance’ that replaced ‘Incapacity Benefit’ had been authorised by then Work & Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper. Even Harsher New ESA Medical Approved. That test was not piloted until early the following year, and so it eventually seemed as if it was those nasty Tories that were delivering it, when in fact it was Blairite Yvette Cooper.

    • John Spencer-Davis

      You been here before? You’re one of Kate Belgrave’s mob, aren’t you. Welcome, and I hope you’ll stick around.

      • Dude Swheatie of the Kilburn Unemployed

        Thanks for the welcome. I’ve referenced this blog post at Timing of the current turmoil and insurrection within the Parliamentary Labour Party against Corbyn.

        Will come back here again, as I keep up blogging at Kilburn Unemployed blog, health permitting.

        Contrary to a ‘privatisation of welfare’ consensus, it is not lack of waged work that makes people ill. And I put people on notice here that Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group will be running two sessions of a ‘burnout workshop’ on Tuesdays 26 August and 2 September, from 1pm to 5pm. Further details will appear on the ‘Kwug blog’ within the next few weeks. As someone has said, it’s not just conventional ‘overwork’ that makes people ill, but also more often it’s a case of too much ‘crap coming from government’.

        In conclusion, if ‘Brexit’ is a laxative, maybe it’s front-persons could be defined as a ‘laxative leadership’? IDS especially, as he endured several years of siphoning off Common Agricultural Policy money from the EU as a member of a land-owning trust before deciding that Britain would be better off out of the EU.

  • mark

    bankers dont like him, buscheny inc. dont like him, cia dont like him.!
    big enemies!
    powerful ability to subvert
    reminds me of JFK, but without the pecadillo’s
    a JFK with no dirt.
    the people are going to have to be mighty diligent if they want corbyn to survive, let alone lead!

  • Gertrude E V Pullman

    Politicians ? Just there for theirs own
    Personal agender ? The people have
    Brainwashed re Referendem. Have to
    Hope the Labour Party back Jeremy
    And put spanner in the works.
    Not proud of electorate even less of the
    Leaders who lied to them. Surely
    Tory party will not elect Boris for
    Prime Minister. If so Jeremy for
    HUMPHREY

  • John Garrett

    I’d love to believe this, but where is the evidence and substantiation?

  • Lawrence STOTT

    Reading around this I understand now – your article combined with others has let me piece this all together and I am appalled. House of Cards has got nothing on this. Two positives though Jeremy Corbyn has shown himself to be a man of honesty and integrity – a worthy and inspirational leader; also the dirty tricks brigade as well as those lacking loyalty to their leadership have just ‘outed’ themselves.

  • Janet O'Neill

    Bring it on. I am watching from Ireland to the events unfolding and your article explains a lot. Hang in Mr. Corbyn. Its a waiting game.

  • Peter Naughton

    I’m just a simple voting member of the public, educated mainly by experience. What I found so disappointing about the build up to the EU vote was the total lack of honest information given to the voting public. It seemed to me that the entire debate was run by the media who seemed to elect Borris and Gove as the main spokespeople for the leave campaign. Galloway got hardly a mention nor did Farage. The media also centered the entire debate around imigration which, if our MP’s had informed their electorate fully and correctly, woud have proven a relatively minor point in comparison to self determination and the impending financial collapse of the EU. The EU, in my opinion, is unsustainable financially and the Uk, should we remain, will be held liable for a massive chunk of the deficit created by the EU central bank printing money in order to bail out bankrupt member states. I think it was disgraceful that our elected representatives failed in their duty to inform, those who required it, truthfully fairly and impartially. It was a deliberate deception and one that continues.
    I found your article above extremely interesting and disconcerting. It seems so difficult for someone such as myself to rely on anything stated publicly by those who govern us. It seems we must now immediately discount any public utterances as lies and instead search for credible reasons to contradict that we have been told.The majority of our MP’s should be ashamed of themselves.
    The turmoil engulfing the Uk at this moment appears to be a deliberate scheme, contrived by unelected puppeteer’s and similar to the turmoil that has engulfed half the globe over the past ten years or so. Motivated by what? For an ordinary man such as me, it’s difficult to understand what on earth could justify such obviously deliberate carnage being inflicted on the ordinary people of so many nations.
    Study, research and analysis makes statements by Boris Yeltsin when referring to the New World Order seem totally credible. We ordinary people desperately require honest and forthright politicians to inform and advise us.

  • Joan Fournier

    This must be the real reason for the obscene haste of Labour’s Blairite faction to discredit and oust Jeremy Corbyn from his democratically elected position as leader of their Party.

  • William Massey

    Mr Murray, I fully agree with your prognosis, this attack on Mr Corbyn is beyond belief. I can only hope the bullying traitors pay dearly for actions.

  • Fred

    There are many conspiracies about, but this isn’t one of them. Corbyn is an old-style elite marxist-left politician of limited guile and vision and is just simply unelectable in England with a restructured non-PR Commons, Scotland lost,and media ganged up against anyone left of centre. He just simply is not.The PLP know this, as do the canvassers who knock on voters doors The three-quid labour arrivistes who voted him in do not. Work with the context for now and get an electable leader who can compromise when they have to. Labour left need to stop picking that Blair scab , put some ointment on it and move on.

  • Ralph Power

    I understand that you are unwell. Left wingers in the party have rightly condemned Blair over Iraq for at least 4 years. Hardly a Kruschev Stalin moment is it?

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