British intervention in Kosovo and Sierra Leone means Tony Blair is still held in high esteem by some, says Ed Davie
When not defending the disastrous invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair has been busy trousering large cheques – most recently from a hedge fund that made millions from the fall of Northern Rock and luxury bag-maker Louis Vuitton.
With his current role as an apologist for neo-conservative hawks and advisor to parasitic City institutions, it is all too easy to forget that the former Prime Minister was once quite popular and actually did some good.
I was reminded of this, now obscured, phase of his career when canvassing on the Clapham Park Estate – an area of social housing in south London being slowly but radically improved through Labour’s efforts.
A man from Sierra Leone opened the door of his family’s flat to my knocking and, seeing the Labour badge, warmly shook my hand – not a reaction I always get, it has to be said.
Beaming, he told me that he would always vote for the party after what Blair’s Government had done in intervening militarily to help restore the democratic government in his country and usher in a period of relative peace and prosperity for his compatriots.
My image of Blair standing “shoulder to shoulder” with George W Bush as they blundered into Iraq casts a shadow that had all but blocked out this successful example of “liberal interventionism”.
Overlooked, too, especially by al Qaida, is Kosovo – where Britain and other Nato countries saved the largely Muslim population from worse misery at the hands of Slobodan Milosevic’s militias and troops.
During that latter intervention in 1999, Blair articulated his bold vision of “liberal interventionism” in a speech in Chicago.
The notion he set out – that nations should go to war, not for territorial interests, but in order to alleviate suffering – was a noble and inspiring concept.
Even though the “Blair doctrine” was eventually overwhelmed in the wake of
the September 11 attacks, his immediate response to those terrorist atrocities was to offer a more positive way forward in tackling sources of division and discontent than anything Washington was planning – plans that would only add to the chaos.
Blair was often accused of being too presidential. Perhaps, if someone like him had actually been President of the United States, they could have dragged the West away from the disaster that was the invasion of Iraq.
As it was, Prime Minister Blair decided the realpolitik of preserving the special relationship with Washington took precedence over anything else, including liberal interventionism, Britain’s reputation for independence and his own as one of the better leaders of the period.
Before helping to bring murderous chaos to Iraq and then profiting hugely from his time in office by working for the fabulously wealthy, Blair did do some good – certainly that Sierra Leonean family thinks so.
But, for many, the former Labour leader’s reputation – and the policy of intervening militarily abroad to end the suffering of others – may never recover.
Ed Davie is a journalist, a former Westminster Lobby correspondent for the House Magazine and a Labour candidate in Lambeth’s local government elections in May
