Meet A Labor Party Brit Who Wants to Dump Blair

by Jim Moore

03/17/2003

His name is Tam Dalyell, and he is the longest continuously serving member of the British House of Commons 

Mr.Dalyell wrote an article for the Globe and Mail called: Why Tony Blair Has To Go, which was excellent, but also odd since Dalyell is a member of Blair's Labor Party.

That intrigued me. So I decided to ask this outspoken Blair "defector" for an interview. Dalyell agreed, saying it was an opportunity to let America know how many Brits felt about Blair's stand on the Iraq situation. Here is the interview:

MOORE: Mister Dalyell, your party recommended that Prime Minister Blair reconsider his position on supporting a war against Iraq. Why, may I ask?


DALYELL: If Mister Blair goes ahead with his support of an American attack without unambiguous UN authorization, and without a vote in the House of Commons, he should be branded a war criminal and sent to the Hague.


MOORE: That's a rather inflammatory statement, isn't it?


DALYELL: I've served in the Labor Party for 41 years, Mister Moore, and I never dreamed of saying this, but this is a man who has disdain for the House of Commons and International Law

MOORE: That's strange. Blair is a lawyer, isn't he?


DALYELL: He is. But he seems to have no understanding that to sanction military action without proper Security Council authorization is illegal under international law. 

MOORE: But there are some exceptions under the UN Charter, aren't there?


DALYELL: Only two. Individual or collective response to an armed attack. And action authorized by the Security Council in response to a threat to peace. That's all.

MOORE: What about pre-emptive strikes against possible attacks in the future?


DALYELL: They have no basis in international law. Also, Resolution 1441, which Blair bleats on about, does not authorize the use of force in the present circumstances.

MOORE: I find it difficult to believe that Tony Blair is unaware of what is legal and what is not. The prime minister certainly isn't stupid.


DALYELL: No, he isn't stupid, Mr. Moore. But I don't think Tony Blair truly understands the horrors of 21st century war.

MOORE: Really? What makes you say that?


DALYELL: In 1994, I visited Baghdad and saw the carbonated limbs of women and children impregnated against a wall by the heat of just one cruise missile.


MOORE: That must have been an awful experience.


DALYELL: It surely was. And in the coming war we are told that 800 missiles will be launched, just to soften up the enemy.


MOORE: Mister Blair certainly must be aware of all this.


DALYELL: I'm sure he is, but many in the Labor Party believe that Blair misunderstands the pressing danger. It comes not from Iraq, but from terrorism.


MOORE: I don't understand. Aren't they one and the same?


DALYELL: If there's any link between them it's Hate. Osama bin Laden hates Saddam Hussein. On at least two occasions, his organization tried to assassinate him.

MOORE: Okay, but the other link between them is 9/ll, or so we are told.


DALYELL: But the wicked perpetrators of 9/ll were not Iraqis. They were Saudis and Yemenis. Why then unleash war against Iraq---unless, of course, it is to fulfill plans hatched as long ago as 1991 for a pre-emptive strike to gain control of Iraq's oil reserves.

MOORE: Pardon me, sir, but that has a tinge of anti-American in it.


DALYELL: I am not anti-American, Mister Moore. But many of us over here think the United States has been hijacked by extremists within its government. They have used the support of a British prime minister as a fig leaf against their critics, and against opposition to war in the United States. 

MOORE: Oh, c'mon, Mister Dalyell. Why would the American government do a thing like that?


DALYELL: Because it is useful for them to say: "A British Labor prime minister supports us."

MOORE: Now THAT sounds like a bit of British arrogance.


DALYELL Perhaps it does. But I believe that if Britain had made it clear months ago that we would not be party to a U.S. attack on Iraq, that the United States was acting entirely on its own, I think American public opinion itself might well have stopped this war from ever being contemplated.

MOORE: Well, sir, it's water over the dam now. Thank you very much for the interview, Mister Dalyell. It was nice talking with you.


DALYELL: Likewise, Mister Moore. Good day to you, sir.

This interview, of course, never took place. But the words of Tam Dalyell did. They are essentially what he said in his article in The Globe and Mail. They were carefully edited for space and put into context by my questions. I take full responsibility for any errors or omissions.

Jim Moore
Jmoore1819@aol.com