Tony’s heels are firmly dug in.  I’m sure he just wants people to stop asking tricky questions and to be left to his retirement.

The Iraq War inquiry is in progress in London.

His defence is that he believed that the  2003 invasion of Iraq was the ‘right thing to do’ – a point I can accept in isolation.  What I can’t accept is that manipulating evidence about the existence of weapons of mass destruction and ignoring legal advice was the right thing to do, particularly from an individual who has traded in part on his religious ideals.

Worse still, this man is aggravating for further conflict in the Middle East. The West must be prepared to face down the ‘looming challenge’ of dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, he said.

According to Mr. Blair, Europe and the US need to drop their “wretched posture of apology” and get on the front foot.  He is yet to apologise and apparently the inquiry will make no recommendation.

How did it come to this?  What happened to Tony Blair?

This represents a step change in US/ Iran relations and is a natural extension of the use of social media by the Obama team. This is sure to stimulate a lot of online activity and no doubt cynicism but I find it very exciting that the US Administration is proactively and publicly reaching out to nations that have previously been positioned by the US Government as ‘evil’ with a constructive message of reconcilliation and hope.