Occupation Isn't Liberation

This was how Tony Blair's Al Jazeera interview was reported in the Sunday Star Times:

Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted the Irqa war has been a disaster, in an interview on Arab TV channel al-Jazeera. Challenged that western intervention had 'so far been pretty much of a disaster', Blair said: 'It has.' But he blamed resistance by insurgents rather than failures of planning.

What he actually said was:

He added: "But you see what I say to people is 'Why is it difficult in Iraq?' It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shiite militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

I think the Sunday Star Times summary is awesome, because it points out how ridiculous Tony Blair's argument is: "There was nothing wrong with our planning, the problem was that there were some people in Iraq that didn't want to be invaded." Which is presumably something that they should have planned for.

But he's right about one thing (I promise this will be the only time I will claim Tony Blair was right) - the problem of Iraq isn't a problem of poor planning. No amount of planning would have solved the fundamental problem which is that they should have stayed the fuck out of Iraq.

Right now, when people are thinking about 'other options' it's important to say loud and long that the only solution is to end the occupation.