What a political opposition looks like …

Posted by Joshua Holland at 8:41 AM on December 31, 2006.

I know it's the holidays and all, but I'm surprised by the lack of reaction to the hanging of Saddam Hussein among Democrats. It's Sunday, and there are no statements on the DNC site, nor on the sites of Pelosi, Murtha or Biden -- all of whom one expects to hear from after an event of some import in the war all three originally supported. Even Holy Joe Lieberman is silent for a change.

Congressman Jerry McNerney didn't mention it directly in the Dems' weekly radio address on Saturday, although that's likely taped earlier. Of Iraq, he gave the standard line: "The Iraqis need to understand that the responsibility for the future of that country is theirs. Beginning the redeployment of American forces would send that message."

It’s not a big deal, of course, given the big picture, but it’s noteworthy.

Tony Blair also didn't release a statement -- he's spending the holidays in the Florida home of former Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb -- but he's taking some serious flack back home for his silence.

This is what opposition to a bad, illegal war is supposed to look like:

Peter Kilfoyle, Labour MP for Walton, said that he found it "extraordinary" that Mr Blair has not spoken. "It's yet another error in a long catalogue of mistakes the Prime Minister has made in his handling of Iraq," he said.

Jeremy Corbyn, the MP for Islington North and a member of the Labour Against The War group, said: "I am very surprised that the Prime Minister hasn't made a statement by now.

"He is, after all, very much his own Foreign Secretary most of the time. It is striking that on this occasion, he hasn't seen fit to say anything."

Glenda Jackson, the former Labour minister and prominent critic of the war, said last night: "Tony Blair took us into Iraq. It's amazing how silent he has suddenly become. He has not said anything, he's too busy being on holiday.

"We've gone in there and turned that country into total, unmitigated mayhem so we could show the Middle East that there is a better way of conducting civil liberties. I don't think this is a particularly good message."

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, by contrast had issued his own personal reaction to the execution, saying: "Saddam Hussein's death does not vindicate in any way the ill-conceived and disastrous decision to invade Iraq. His execution does not make an illegal war legal, any more than it will put an end to the violence and destruction."

Note that three of these four are members of Blair's own party -- not even the opposition. Here's a reaction from the Tories (many of whom, I should point out, were all for the war at the time):

"This war was the creation, not just of two governments but essentially of two men -- George Bush and Tony Blair," Malcolm Rifkind, an opposition Conservative politician and former foreign secretary, told Sky News.

"I suppose they (Bush and Blair) can take some comfort that a tyrant has been executed but they also have to live with hundreds of thousands of people who have either died or whose lives are threatened in the Iraq they have created by that war."

Also note the tone of the reporting (this is from The Independent):

Mr Blair's silence was all the more baffling when taking into account the way in which Iraq - and Saddam in particular - defined his premiership. He split the Labour Party by following Mr Bush and taking Britain into a war, which was unpopular and, according to his critics, illegal.

He lost two Cabinet ministers - Robin Cook and Clare Short - over the decision and 122 Labour MPs, more than a quarter of the parliamentary party, voted against it in a landmark Commons debate days before the first shots were fired. One million people marched in London to oppose the war in one of the biggest demonstrations ever held in Britain.

I sat on Santa's lap and asked for a real opposition party and a hard-hitting, professional media but, alas, I found only a lump of coal on X-mas morn.

Tagged as: iraq, hussein

Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer.