BB FANS

Blair: 'God will be my judge on Iraq'


Tony Blair has proclaimed that God will judge whether he was right to send British troops to Iraq, echoing statements from his ally George Bush.

Contradicting warnings from advisers not to mix politics and religion, the Prime Minister said that his interest in politics sprang from his Christianity and its "values and philosophy" had guided him in public life.

Explaining how he managed to live with the decision to go to war in Iraq, Mr Blair replied: "If you have faith about these things then you realise that judgement is made by other people. If you believe in God,it's made by God as well." His remarks, made in an interview to be shown on ITV's Parkinson show tonight, invite comparison with President Bush, a born-again Christian, who has made a virtue of bringing religion into politics. But they also carry the risk of inflaming opinion in the Arab world, where the term "crusader" is commonly used to condemn Christian leaders who meddle in the Middle East.

It is also exactly the sort of comment he has been repeatedly urged not to make for domestic purposes, because of the risk that a sceptical British public will react badly to politicians who appear to be "preaching". Mr Blair was instructed by his former director of communications, Alastair Campbell: "We don't do God."

As well as invoking God as the final judge of the Iraq war, Mr Blair also explained how his religious and political beliefs came to him simultaneously. "There were people at university who got me into politics. I kind of got into religion, politics, at the same time, in a way. And until the age of about 20 I really wasn't very interested in politics at all," he told Michael Parkinson. "That's how I got interested in it."

He refused to accept a description of himself as a "Christian socialist" - but only because the phrase contained the "s" word. "It's a long time since anyone used the word socialist about me," he said.

He agreed that his politics could be described as Christian "in terms of the values and the philosophy". He also confirmed that religion illuminates his politics. "If you have a religious belief, it does - but it's probably best not to take it too far," he said.

Roger Bacon, who has been trying unsuccessfully to meet Tony Blair since his son, Major Matthew Bacon, 34, was killed in Iraq, said last night: "This would explain why he won't see the parents. How can he speak to us when God told him to send the troops out to Iraq so our sons could be killed?"
And Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra in 2004, said she was "quite disgusted" at the comments made by the Prime Minister. The Military Families Against the War campaigner said: "How can he say he is a Christian? A Christian would never put people out there to be killed.

"A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm actually quite disgusted by the comments. It's a joke."

During his eight-year premiership, the only decisions that have caused Mr Blair sleepless nights have been those that involved taking the UK to war, he said. But he added: "The only way you can take a decision like that is to try to do the right thing, according to your conscience. And, for the rest of it, you leave it to the judgement that history will make."

Mr Blair refused to say whether he had prayed for guidance on whether to send British troops into Iraq - which has cost the lives of 103 British troops, 2,300 US soldiers, and up to 30,000 Iraqis, with many thousands maimed or injured, in a conflict which has claimed more lives since the fall of Baghdad than the war itself.

There have been persistent reports that Mr Blair joined the President in prayer for God's guidance at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, in 2002, at the summit at which many people believe a secret decision was reached to invade Iraq.

The claim was made in a book by the Christian author Stephen Mansfield, who said he had heard it from White House officials. It was later backed up by a writer on Time magazine, David Aikman.

Mr Bush once told Palestinian leaders: "God would tell me, 'George, go end the tyranny in Iraq' and I did."
Independent

Corrected the typo there

DeadBrain
4 Mar 2006 by Peter Gee

Anti-war campaigners have criticised Tony Blair after he revealed he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops to Iraq in 2003. The admission follows last year's revelation by George Bush that he too was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, in interviews in the British Sunday newspaper 'The News of the World' this weekend, God is expected to deny that he had any involvement with the war and the Devil will claim that he actually owns Tony Blair's soul - after an agreement was made to sell it to him on election night in 1997 in exchange for Margaret Thatcher's brain.

God is also expected to launch lawsuits in the British and American courts claiming that both Tony Blair and George Bush have breached a major ten-point contract with him including at least: bearing false witness, coveting and stealing oil, killing, working on a Sunday, and worshipping the media and celebrities.

Meanwhile, DeadBrain has learned that there are likely to be further revelations next week when it is expected that several senior Labour Party politicians will announce that their decisions have been influenced by other beings. This is expected to include David Blunkett, who is to say that his dog told him to introduce ID cards, and Charles Clarke, who will announce that he was advised by several omnipotent squirrels in his local park over the issue of the 90-day detention for terror suspects.

Meanwhile, both Tony Blair and George Bush were thought to be in shock last night having been advised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, that with Jesus having been born and lived in the Middle East, there was at least a 10% chance that he too was an Arab.

Entertaining article, Jim - thanks for that.

Poor Tony.

GOD WILL JUDGE THAT YOU WERE WRONG MR BLAIR

OUTRAGE AT PM'S IRAQ WAR 'ARROGANCE' ON PARKINSON


TONY Blair believes that God will judge him over his decision to invade Iraq.

The Prime Minister told ITV chat-show host Michael Parkinson: "If you have faith about these things, then you realise that judgment is made by other people. If you believe in God, it's made by God as well."

The controversial remark outraged families of servicemen who have died in Iraq and sparked debate over whether the PM overstepped the mark by mixing politics and religion.

Here, our panel - some who have lost loved ones in Iraq - give their views on the PM's comments...

ROSE GENTLE

CAMPAIGNER for Military Families Against The War, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra in 2004, aged 19.

'I HOPE my boy isn't with the same God Tony Blair prays to.

What kind of God would justify the deaths of thousands of people? If there is a God, He'll judge Mr Blair to have made the wrong decision - one for which I and many other British families have already been punished.

I know my son would also think that Mr Blair was totally out of order. Thanks to him, I'll never see Gordon grow up. He's constantly in my mind and the grief is sometimes too much.

That's why I was disgusted by Mr Blair's comments.

Since his interview, I've received lots of texts from boys out in Iraq and they're all laughing at Mr Blair. One said: "Tell Tony Blair to ask God for a date to bring us back."'

COL TIM COLLINS

COMMANDED 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment in Iraq.

'As a Christian myself, I believe that, one day, we'll all be called to account by God for our actions.

And if Mr Blair lied about why he was going to war, he'll have a big problem on Judgment Day.

God doesn't start wars - men do. I'm sure God already knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when Mr Blair was saying there were.

He wouldn't approve of sending 103 soldiers to their deaths on a pack of lies and He wouldn't have planned a war without providing for the welfare of the Iraqi people.

The fact that there wasn't any such plan - and hundreds of Iraqis are dying every day - suggests to me that God didn't have much to do with it.'

REG KEYS

FATHER of Lance Corp. Tom Keys, killed by a mob in Majar Al-Kabir, in June 2003. Reg stood against Mr Blair in his Sedgfield constituency in the general election.

'FORGET God, I'll judge Mr Blair myself... and I find him guilty on all counts.

He's guilty of not telling the truth, not showing restraint and not acting with integrity.

God and religion has nothing to do with this war.

Saddam wasn't threatening this country and don't tell me that Iraq is a better place.

There are more people dying there daily than at any time before the war. Mr Blair is using God as a get-out for total strategic failure.

My son and too many other young men gave their lives for this country on the basis of the Prime Minister's lies.

I'm not a religious person but I have grave concerns about a PM who deploys troops to war when he believes in a God who says, "Thou shalt not kill."

If Mr Blair does one day face his creator, God help I him.'

REV JOHN MANN

VICAR of St James Church, Glasgow, who conducted the funeral of Fusilier Gordon Gentle in 2004.

'IF it were me involved in an illegal war in which so many thousands of people had been killed, I'd be extremely concerned about how God is going to judge me. The reality is that because of Mr Blair's actions in this world, many people have died. And this should weigh heavily on his conscience.

But as it happens, Mr Blair seems more concerned about his historical legacy.

I just hope that, one day, he'll feel a deep sense of shame for what he has done, that he will seek God's forgiveness before Judgment Day comes. The God I believe in abhors violence - and to connect any religion with war is blasphemy.

To justify killing people in the name of God or faith... well, I find abhorrent.'

TERRY WAITE

EX-hostage and former adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

'IF Tony Blair was claiming that God supported him in going to war, that would be outrageous. But I don't think that is what he meant. He meant that God would be his judge.

I don't want to put myself in God's position but I was dead against the war. I still think it was entirely wrong.

It was a mistaken strategy. It hasn't made the world safer from terrorism, it has involved the death of many people and destroyed our credibility.

Now Iraq stands on the edge of civil war. It has been a disaster and we have no sensible exit strategy. How we get out of, it is beyond me.'

ANDREW MURRAY

CHAIRMAN of the Stop The War coalition.

'SAYING that "I only answer to God," is very convenient for Tony Blair.

It gets him off the hook of having to answer to the parents of the British soldiers who have died in Iraq.

I'm a non-believer but it is a fact that the leaders of every major religion were against the war. The Prime Minister is either being arrogant in claiming he has a hot-line to God, or duplicitous in ignoring the moral views of all religious leaders.

Almost every argument has been pressed into action to justify this war.

First, it was about non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Then it was about protecting us from terrorism, which the war made worse. Then it was about liberating Iraqis, who hate our presence in their country.

Now that every secular argument has collapsed, Mr Blair turns to God. It is deeply distasteful.'

IHTISHAM HIBATULLAH

REPESENTATIVE of the Muslim Association Of Britain.

'WHEN I first heard Mr Blair's interview, I wondered whether it was God or George he meant.

If he really meant God, I sincerely hope God doesn't hold him accountable for the carnage he has caused in Iraq.

In the eyes of Iraqis, and humanity at large, the war is a crime beyond recognition, co-authored by Blair and based on lies.

It has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis, as well as British and American servicemen, while the country has descended into chaos.

I'm frightened to even think how God might judge Mr Blair for this.

Instead, I hope he prays to God for forgiveness and mercy.'
Mirror