OpEd - SubScribe14

The commentators 17-06-14

...on Iraq

Tony Blair should be impeached. It would lance this boil once and for all. Not only that, statesmen would in future know that however powerful they were, there was still a means of Parliament holding them to account and, if necessary, punishing them. And we would finally know, once and for all, just what Tony Blair's true place in history should be.
- Simon Heffer, Daily Mail

Blair was not the deepest thinker when making policy but he was not daft. In terms of military action he would have been aware of the dangers as well as what he genuinely hoped would be the benefits. But once a decision is taken that leads to war, there can be no public reflection on the dangers. The case had to be made without qualification.
-Steve Richards, Independent

Iraq was a bad war, fought for bad reasons, which was destined to end badly. We should be chastened by the way that very few of us, even those vehemently opposed, actually managed to engage with why. And as for Mr Blair, he may be quite right that a world in which Saddam had been left alone would still be pretty ugly. But I wish we lived in it.
- Hugo Rifkind, The Times

The history of the past decade in the Middle East suggests that western military force, while capable of achieving swift victories on the battlefield, has a dismal record of securing lasting and acceptable political outcomes. President Barack Obama seems to have learnt that lesson, even if his political opponents choose to forget it.
- Gideon Rachman, FT

Nominations have opened for the EI comment awards.
Click here for details

...and on David Cameron and Dominic Cummings

You can say what you like about Dominic Cummings, but he does have a way with words. The prime minister is a "sphinx without a riddle", devoid of hidden depths; the Downing Street chief of staff Ed Llewellyn a "classic third-rate suck-up-kick-down sycophant". But there's more to this than high-grade gossip, or yet another yelp of frustration about Downing Street donkeys leading self-styled lions.
- Gaby Hinscliff, The Guardian

When we chuckle at Mr Cameron’s attempt to promote Britishness, there is something willed about the jollity, as though deep down we know that our benign neglect of identity can have dark consequences that we would rather not dwell on.
- Janan Ganesh, FT