Mr. Blair's testimony yesterday serves as a reminder that without proper inquiry, complete with penetrating questions and thorough follow-up (i.e., a proper cross-examination), he and others who were responsible for the Iraq travesty will never be held to account for their manifest abuse of the people's trust.
The sad truth is the media has not raised its game, at least not nearly enough. Even today, after all this time, the media continue to dutifully toe the line by framing this as about whether Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush really, truly, crossed-their-hearts-and-hoped-to-die, saw Saddam as an honest-to-goodness threat. Herein lies the central conceit which continues to serve as the foundation of the Big Lie.
As has been repeatedly said by many, including me, no one is seriously questioning Bush/Blair's earnest belief that Saddam was a really bad guy, most likely with really bad intentions (like many other bad guys in the world). Yet the media continue to enthusiastically allow politicians to frame the debate in this way. Witness Peter Hain angrily demanding (at 2:20) whether Chris Huhne is "questioning [his] honesty" on the BBC's Question Time. Have a look.
It's an old politician's trick - a form of misdirection. Simply put, it's all about going on the offensive on an imaginary issue - a slightly more sophisticated version of "when did you stop beating your wife". It forces one's antagonist to fight a battle other than the one you know you're going to lose. The media falls for it every time.
Tony, of course, is a consummate master, and his skills were on full display yesterday. Once again it makes me weep for what might have been had his power to control messaging and dictate the terms of the debate been used for good and not evil.
In any case, by allowing those who would avoid accountability to control the discussion, we allow them to create an impression that any revelation is "old news" and just more fodder for those whose minds are already made up. It's a careful, cynical calculation, calibrated with a precision that befits Alistair Campbell.
It would be nice if we, the People - or our representatives, were permitted to ask some reasonable questions - not about what Tony and Dubbya "believed" - but rather about the process by which they took us to war. After all, the bottom line is this: the process is supposed to serve in the interest of our democracies, not in the interest of what Tony and Dubbya "believe" to be "right" and "true".
To repeat: the problem here was the process: the people - not Mr. Blair (contrary to his assertions yesterday) - were asked to make a judgment based on evidence that proved to be cherry-picked or of highly dubious provenance. There is ample evidence of this. It is difficult to forget about the existence of Dick and Rummey's Office of Special Plans, the "stove-piping" of favourable intelligence to support pre-ordained conclusions, including from a source whose credibility could be guessed at by its codename: "Curveball".
This is the issue. It goes to the core of our democratic principles - a fact that so many in the media fail to recognise.
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