History should come down hard on Tony Blair for embracing Gaddafi

Tony Blair knew what a murderous 'mad dog' Gaddafi was. The only convincing reason for the rapprochement was the promotion of British interests in Libya

A GOOD COMMENT
Alexander Chancellor
The Guardian, Friday 25 February 2011

"In the light of subsequent events, Neville Chamberlain's effort to appease Adolf Hitler is usually portrayed as one of the most shameful episodes in modern British history. But surely Tony Blair's love-in with Colonel Gaddafi was worse. Chamberlain never pretended to like Hitler. He certainly never embraced him. His aim was to prevent war by reaching an accommodation with a man whose full infamy he did not appreciate....

If the verdict of history has not, in fact, been kind to Chamberlain, it should be even harsher to Blair. For Blair, when he first shook hands with Gaddafi at their desert meeting in 2004, knew very well what a monster he was. During 35 years as Libya's dictator, Gaddafi, though not to the extent of Hitler, had proven himself to be vicious, murderous and corrupt – a "mad dog", as Ronald Reagan called him. Blair's justification for that ghastly embrace was Gaddafi's promise to give up weapons of mass destruction, but there was no good reason to believe such a promise of a man who had previously spent years fostering terrorism against both Britain and the US. The most convincing reason for – and only visible result of – their rapprochement was the promotion of Britain's oil and other commercial interests in Libya.....

A key figure in the Britain-Libya rapprochement may well have been Gaddafi's son Saif, an alumnus and generous benefactor of the London School of Economics, and owner of an expensive house in Hampstead. In his rambling address to the Libyan people last weekend, in which he pledged that his family would fight "until the last bullet" to stay in power, he appeared weird and almost as unhinged as his father. But this is a man whom members of the British establishment had previously found charming and civilised. His friends included not only Peter Mandelson, Nat Rothschild and Prince Andrew, but also Professor David Held of the LSE, who last year introduced him to an audience there as "someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration". How easily people are taken in! All you need is power, wealth, a plausible manner and a good command of English to be considered a first-class fellow. But the Libyans see Saif as no more than a chip off a disgusting old block....."