Does anyone know what’s really behind Blair’s obsession with war?

I WAS sceptical about Tony Blair when he first became leader of Britain’s Labour Party in July 1994. I felt he was no more than a “soap powder” politician. New Labour like “new improved Daz” or “new formula Omo” smacked of clever repackaging — slick advertising and spin-doctoring rather than real policy shifts or solid political competence.

However, Blair gradually grew on me. Within two years, he had completed the work of modernising the Labour Party. He made it electable. Blair and his team ran an incredible first election campaign and won a historic majority in the House of Commons.

In his first term, Blair, with considerable assistance from his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, showed Labour could govern responsibly and could govern well. They modernised much of the infrastructure of British Government and restructured much of the economy.