There are big decisions – and few come bigger than whether to engage in military action – and there are small decisions, coming at you all the time. Like when President Trump opens a folder, and papers fall out.
I doubt there is anyone reading this unaware that Starmer chose the last of these options… cue an avalanche of comment, satire, insult, political attack from the Tories suggesting the picture of our PM bowing down before Trump was a portrait of Britain’s sad decline, and it was all Labour’s fault.
And so, runs the current commentary on Trump’s “will he, won’t he?” handling of Israel and Iran, here we go again. Iraq 2003, Bush-Blair; Iran 2025, Trump-Starmer.
Doubtless some – those who insist the invasion of Iraq was illegal – will read that and scoff, and nothing I can add here to the millions of words said and written about the Iraq war is likely to change their view. I do, however, ask them to cast their minds back, and recall just how much in the build-up the focus was on questions of law, and of the authority of the UN. Both mattered; both were taken with the utmost seriousness.
The debate on intelligence feels different too. One of the reasons we published intelligence, and presented it to Parliament, was out of a desire to share with MPs and public the evidence behind the reasons for Tony Blair’s growing concern about Saddam Hussein.
Both he, and Netanyahu, feel they can act with impunity, because that is the era we appear to be in. Netanyahu, already indicted for war crimes over his actions in Gaza, consistently ignoring rulings of the International Court of Justice, embroiled in corruption charges at home, yet how rarely do we see any of this even mentioned in the current debate about Iran?
square ALISON PHILLIPS This is Starmer's Iraq moment – and he's desperate not to look like Trump's lapdog
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Because of Trump’s disdain for multilateralism, he may not be leaning on Starmer as much as Bush leant on Blair. But if, after his “two weeks” musings, the President does decide to support the Israelis in direct military action against Iran, the UK faces some big decisions.
These present decisions far, far bigger than whether to pick up a few blank pieces of paper, and the reason they are such tough decisions is because there are serious consequences either way.
Now, in one breath they say they would not have done the Chagos Islands deal, in the next they urge Britain to give all possible assistance to the US in military action against Iran by letting them use the Diego Garcia airbase in – that’s right – the Chagos Islands.
Keir Starmer can be that leader.
Alastair Campbell is co-host of The Rest is Politics. He served as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s director of communications
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