UK queen petitioned to remove ex-PM Tony Blair knighthood

Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London

More than half a million people have signed a petition for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be stripped of knighthood, an appointment personally made by the country’s Monarch just last week. The petitioners say the former premier should be tried and jailed for his role in the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Britain’s highest rank for chivalry awarded by Queen Elizabeth to Tony Blair, a man described by campaigners as one of the most repugnant political figures in the world - in power from 1997 to 2007.

The backlash to the announcement has been immense and is only growing. Furious Iraq veterans are now calling for the honors system to be overhauled. More than 500,000 people have signed a petition on American petition website "change.org" calling on the Queen to strip the man they call a war criminal of his new title.

It’s a designation routinely awarded to former Prime Ministers, but antiwar campaigners say they’re repulsed at seeing Blair receiving it.

In mid-February 2003, just before the Iraq invasion, 10s of millions of demonstrators in hundreds of cities across the world, including London, marched against the impending US-led war in the Middle East. To Tony Blair, the biggest protest march in British history was fatuous:

The US claimed the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and actively pressed for invading Iraq in late 2001. Those weapons were never found.

Two decades on: One million dead Iraqis, three million dispossessed and a region reeling from terrorism and instability. Hundreds of British troops were killed in the same conflict. Anti-war campaigners say, Tony Blair belongs in the dock at The Hague and not in the pantheon of great leaders.

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