Britain must escape Tony Blair’s corrosive legacy

n HIS interview with Sir David Frost for al-Jazeera television, broadcast last night, David Cameron was correct to concede that the United Kingdom lost moral authority in the world in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack on Manhattan’s Twin Towers because the then Labour government under Tony Blair supported George Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Yet how are we to interpret the prime minister’s remarks when he did not condemn his predecessor outright, merely choosing to say “some” moral authority was lost in the aftermath of 9/11? In emphasising the recent military intervention in Libya was done with the support of Arab states and did not involve troops, Mr Cameron appeared to be trying to convince a largely Arab audience of a difference between the approach his government takes to world affairs and that of Mr Blair.

Given the Tories supported the invasion of Iraq it would, of course, have been impossible for the prime minister to do anything other than try to subtly distance himself from the Blair government, but as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11 tomorrow it is a pity Mr Cameron felt he could not be more forthright. For it is more than ever clear the slavish support for president Bush’s invasion of Iraq as a response to 9/11 was disastrous for Britain’s standing in the world.

It should be remembered that before the Iraq campaign the situation in Afghanistan, where the UK had joined the US in a military intervention, was showing signs of success. The Taleban had been ousted, if not defeated. Kabul was a relatively safe city. There was hope for the benighted people of a country freed from an oppressive regime, and hope, too, for the idea that intervention could be a force for good.

That hope was dashed when Mr Blair decided to throw Britain uncritically and unequivocally behind Mr Bush’s attack on Iraq, a deeply unpleasant country under Saddam Hussein but which, as we now know, had neither the claimed weapons of mass destruction, nor anything to do with the terrible carnage wrought on America by the hijackers who flew the planes into the Twin Towers. From the moment the UK troops invaded Iraq, Britain stood condemned and as the warning there was no strategy to win the peace once the war was (relatively easily) won came grimly true, respect for Britain in the world all but evaporated.

It is in this context Mr Cameron’s words must be seen and whilst they are welcome as far as they go, the prime minister must realise it will take more than just a partial intervention in Libya – use of air strikes is still military action even if there are not boots on the ground – to convince the world, and the Arab world in particular, that the UK is not the 51st state of America. Thanks to Mr Blair, there is still a long way to go before the UK’s moral authority is fully restored.