The quiet man

Tweet Generally, the most effective criticism is not that delivered vituperatively or in anger, but that delivered in calm, quiet, measured tones. Hans Blix gave us a beautiful example yesterday in his evidence to the Iraq enquiry.

His killer line was when he said that he didn't doubt the good faith of Bush and Blair, but "What I question was the good judgement". This was a man who was closer than anyone else to the key question of whether there were or were not WMD in Iraq, and to hear him confirming that he had explicitly and personally warned Blair, before the invasion, that there might be none to be found was extremely damning. It confirms that Blair knew that the 'dodgy dossier' might well not be correct, but chose to ignore any evidence which didn't fit with the view which he and Bush had already formed.

Dr Blix is a Swede of course. His country has a long and honourable tradition of providing men like Dr Blix who will look at the evidence carefully and thoroughly from an objective perspective rather than being bullied into agreeing with the US government. It's the sort of contribution which many of us would like to see Wales making to world affairs, rather than being dragged into illegal wars on someone else's coat-tails. Might isn't right, and long may there be people like Dr Blix to tell us so.