XPost: soc.culture.china, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.british   
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   From: acoustic@panix.com   
      
   Blair is still bluffing: "...how can you regret removing somebody who   
   was a monster, who created enormous carnage?"   
      
   When you hear this kind of response, you begin to wonder how true any   
   single statement any of these warmongers have uttered in public can   
   be.   
      
   So, no wonder that we have an immediate response from a Lebanese-Iraqi   
   architect and blogger based in London, Karl Sharro, who reported has   
   bitterly mocked Mr. Blair's 45-minute claim this week, as the former   
   prime minister continued to defend the war.   
      
     Karl Sharro @KarlreMarks   
      
     Press reports suggest that Tony Blair can be deployed within 45   
     minutes to declare that he doesn't regret his decision to invade   
     #Iraq.  12:57 PM - 18 Mar 13   
      
     Karl Sharro @KarlreMarks   
      
     The invasion of Iraq forced my entire family there to leave   
     permanently and I don't know when will I see it again. Sorry for not   
     cheering.  1:36 PM - 19 Mar 13   
      
   We also know the rest of the story.  The reason why Karl is so   
   pessimistic about his chances of returning home to Iraq is because   
   Iraq has become a failed state and is unlivable for those who grew up   
   and lived there all their lives until the barbarous invasion and   
   occupation.  For as long as the billion-dollar US embassy continues to   
   exist, Iraq will continue to be a failed state and unlivable for   
   anyone except those who can afford to live in the bunkers.   
      
   lo yeeOn   
      
   March 19, 2013, 1:21 pm 17 Comments   
      
   Blair Says Iraq Would Be "Worse Than Syria"   
   Now, if Antiwar Critics Had Prevailed   
      
   By ROBERT MACKEY   
      
   Defending Britain's participation in the American-led invasion of   
   Iraq, former Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC that Iraq "would   
   look a lot more like Syria, and probably a lot worse than Syria,"   
   today if the war had not taken place.   
      
   Mr. Blair's comments were broadcast as at least 52 people were killed   
   by more than a dozen car bombs across Baghdad on Tuesday, the eve of   
   the 10th anniversary of the invasion, which removed Saddam Hussein   
   from power but led to a bloody insurgency and sectarian violence.   
   Estimates of the civilian death toll in Iraq since 2003 vary, but The   
   Associated Press has concluded that more than 100,000 Iraqis were   
   killed, along with nearly 4,500 Americans and 179 British troops. The   
   United Nations estimated in January that more than 60,000 Syrians had   
   died in the civil war there.   
      
   Focusing the conversation not on the tens of thousands of civilian   
   deaths but on the evil done by the dictator removed from power,   
   Mr. Blair said: "When people say to me, you know, `Do you regret   
   removing him?' I say, `No, how can you regret removing somebody who   
   was a monster, who created enormous carnage?'"   
      
   He added: "And if you look at what's happening in the Arab Spring   
   today, and you examine what's happening in Syria - just reflect on   
   what Bashar Assad, who is a twentieth as bad as Saddam, is doing to   
   his people today, and the number of lives already lost, just ask   
   yourself, `What would be happening in Iraq now if he had been left in   
   power?'"   
      
   Mr. Blair also told the BBC, "If things continue as they are in Syria   
   today, within a few months - proportionate to the size of the   
   population - more people will have died in Syria than in the whole of   
   the conflict since 2003 in Iraq."   
      
   Mr. Blair's decision to support the Bush administration's invasion of   
   Iraq came in the face of widespread opposition in Britain. One month   
   before the war, Scotland Yard estimated that more than 750,000 people   
   took part in one protest rally in London's Hyde Park. They heard the   
   playwright Harold Pinter describe the United States as "a monster out   
   of control" and a "country run by a bunch of criminal lunatics with   
   Blair as their hired Christian thug."   
      
   One year after the invasion, an independent inquiry into Britain's   
   role in spreading faulty intelligence used to make the case for war   
   directly criticized Mr. Blair for having claimed, in late 2002, that   
   Iraq had "existing and active military plans for the use of chemical   
   and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes."   
   A British intelligence report that Iraq was seeking uranium from   
   Africa was also cited by President George Bush in his 2003 State of   
   the Union speech, on the eve of war.   
      
   A Lebanese-Iraqi architect and blogger based in London, Karl Sharro,   
   bitterly mocked Mr. Blair's 45-minute claim this week, as the former   
   prime minister continued to defend the war.   
      
   Karl Sharro @KarlreMarks   
      
   Press reports suggest that Tony Blair can be deployed within 45   
   minutes to declare that he doesn't regret his decision to invade   
   #Iraq.  12:57 PM - 18 Mar 13   
      
   Karl Sharro @KarlreMarks   
      
   The invasion of Iraq forced my entire family there to leave   
   permanently and I don't know when will I see it again. Sorry for not   
   cheering.  1:36 PM - 19 Mar 13   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)