TONY BLAIR WARNS OF WAR WITH IRAN – AT 9:15 A.M. ET:  Blair was George Bush's greatest ally in the Iraq War, and continues to take plenty of heat for it.  He's a courageous man who refuses to back down from his concerns, while others live their illusions:

World leaders might have to go to war to stop Iran developing its weapons programme, Tony Blair suggested yesterday.

The former Prime Minister, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said that Tehran’s actions had made him more afraid today that a rogue state could supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorists than he was when he took Britain to war with Iraq in 2003.

He warned that world leaders, including the British Prime Minister, now faced the same kinds of decision about the dangers posed by repressive regimes as he did seven years ago.

“My judgment — and it may be other people don’t take this view, and that’s for the leaders of today to make their judgment — is we don’t take any risks with this issue,” he said.

The sneer-and-smugness crowd will laugh at Blair, pointing out that we didn't find stockpiles of WMD when we went into Iraq.  This same group refuses to acknowledge that we did find the WMD programs, ready to be restarted once UN sanctions on Iraq were lifted.  They were expected to be lifted in 2003.  We can only imagine what Saddam Hussein would have had in the way of WMD today.

The former Prime Minister raised concerns about Tehran’s links with terrorist organisations.

Mr Blair said: “My fear was — and I would say I hold this fear stronger today than I did back then as a result of what Iran particularly today is doing — my fear is that states that are highly repressive or failed, the danger of a WMD link is that they become porous, they construct all sorts of different alliances with people.”

The key to dealing with Iran is the president of the United States.  There are many Iran "experts" who want us simply to accept the Iranian nuclear program.  Blair, though, has it right.  Iran is fanatical and unstable, and we know of its ties to terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.  We must assume, for our own safety, ties to Al Qaeda.

This will be the year of Iran.  So far the administration is involved in "discussions" over sanctions.  The centrifuges in Iran are not involved in discussions.

February 2, 2010