Blair's teary-eyed farewell speech at his last Labour Party Conference was greeted with a well-deserved standing ovation by the part-time socialists, Labour Party conference groupies and coup plotters who now make up the rank and file of the Labour party membership.

Delivering what may yet come to be known as the most riveting performance of his career, Blair, with a deft oratorical wizardry, cast his final hypnotic spell over his audience. Who would have believed that Tony Blair could rebound with such flare after the recent “Night of the long knives,” and failed coups? But rebound he did, milking the opportunity to take a few jabs at drab Gordon: just enough to put him in his place without making the Brownite militia reach for their guns.

With all the nauseating “We love Tony” and “The party will not be the same without him” proclamations which were coming from the party faithful, it was a pity Blair's comrades inside the Manchester Conference Centre could not hear the anti-war protesters outside, for they were screaming the sobering antidote to Blairs spell: IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, LEBANON…

Many inside the Labour Party conference wooed by such eloquent oratory, deliberately chose to erase from memory the catastrophic foreign policy decisions of their leader, choosing instead to focus on the economy and domestic agenda. However, skillful oratory will not be enough to delete the crimes of Iraq and Afghanistan. For, just as Pinochet, the despotic former military ruler of Chile, flees one indictment after another, history will surely pursue Blair for the blood of the British soldiers and Iraqi families which permanently stain his hands and have ruined what could otherwise have been noted as a brilliant Prime Ministerialship.

Blair was right when he declared “History shall be my judge,” a quote he had shamelessly swiped from his ideological nemesis, Fidel Castro, for history has a long memory and a dastardly habit of treacherously changing its mind.

Tony Blair and his bloodstained allies are in a deep denial in regards to the consequences of their decisions regarding the Middle East. Even in the face of the recently released US intelligence report that admitted the war in Iraq had increased terrorism, Tony Blair still refuses to accept responsibility. He told the conference: “This terrorism isn’t our fault. We didn’t cause it. It’s not the consequence of foreign policy. It’s an attack on our way of life.”

Mr. Blair: “History shall be your judge.” You will not be remembered for your leadership, your reforms, or your raw brilliance. You shall be remembered as Bush’s Poodle, his Lapdog, his Monica Lewinsky, the man who sacrificed Britain’s honour, sullied it’s name, and dragged the nation into illegal wars.

Blair has always assumed he knows best, ignoring the wishes of the people whilst expanding the portfolios of the rich. He mortgaged his soul to Murdoch in order to cross the threshold of Number 10 and remortgaged it to Bush to gain influence on the international stage. His personal and political ambitions have come at a price; scores of thousands have died as a result and millions of lives have been ruined. Forget the self-righteous posturing about believing what you have done in the Middle East is right; you were aware of the imperialist agenda of the US government, you were aware of the maniacle ambitions proclaimed in the 1997 draft of the Project For A New American Century, and even more aware of the imperialist ambitions of its architects.

Blair is guilty of war crimes and of sacrificing the lives of thousands to pursue his own selfish ambitions. British soldiers who have been sent to their deaths by his government deserve justice; the butchered civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan deserve justice. Blair may be leaving office soon, but justice will not have been served until history has spoken.

Ishmahil Blagrove, Jr.
Editor, riceNpeas.com

1st October 2006