Queen Elizabeth’s decision to bestow one of the highest honors on the Iraq War PM has sparked fierce backlash
An online petition was signed by hundreds of thousands calling on Tony Blair to be stripped of his knighthood. The former UK prime minister “should be held accountable for war crimes” instead, it says.
A Change.org petition asking the UK prime minister for permission to contact the Queen to cancel the order was signed more than 400,000.
Angus Scott, the author of the petition, says the former prime minister “caused irreparable damage to the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society,” while he was in power between 1997 and 2007.
Blair was specifically named in the petition. “causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen”You can drag the UK into “various conflicts.”
“For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes,” it says.
While it’s customary for British monarchs to confer most senior knighthoods on former prime ministers, Buckingham Palace’s decision to not snub Blair caused massive outrage among Brits, citing Blair’s role in the 2003 invasion in Iraq and his support for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
In 2017, a third of Britons said Blair should be tried as a war criminal for “knowingly misleading”The public was made aware about the idea of an invasion of Iraq by inquiry that found no intelligence supporting the claim that Saddam Hussein, the former leader of Iraq, had weapons-of-mass destruction.
Blair was presented with the Most Noble Order of the Garter in the New Year Honours List 2022. This is the highest level of knighthood. Blair responded to this announcement by calling the title “an immense honor,” while Buckingham Palace said it was “graciously pleased”Blair should receive it.
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