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The knighthood for blood-soaked Blair won't help rehabilitate him
LINDSEY GERMAN says the whole honours system is a corrupt farce — but elevating Blair is an outrage even in this context
Not in our name: The largest march in British history – that against the Iraq war on February 15, 2003

OF ALL the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Agravain was described as “arrogant and full of evil words.” He joined together with Mordred to betray Lancelot and Guinevere. Perhaps it was this precedent that the current queen had in mind when she decided to honour Tony Blair with the Order of the Garter, the most exclusive knighthood in the country. 

It is an award that sent shockwaves across New Year’s Eve gatherings throughout Britain as the news of Sir Tony of Kabul’s ennoblement spread. The year 2021 was, after all, the year of decisive defeat for the Western powers in Afghanistan, 20 years after Blair helped launch the war there. 

Today around eight million Afghans are on the edge of starvation and face a particularly bleak winter, in large part because of the freezing of aid and assets by the same Western powers. 

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