Timing intervention

Ian Williams writes on humanitarian intervention, and makes some fair criticisms of “the anti-Samaritans of the so-called left” who oppose any Western use of force for any reason.

But he also makes a real howler:

“It was probably Blair's abuse of the concept in Iraq that led to the international commission set up by the Canadian government to rename it ‘the responsibility to protect’, which was adopted by the UN in 2005.”

The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty’s Responsibility to Protect report was published in December 2001. So what Blair did from 2003 onwards probably wasn’t all that relevant.

Too much Doctor Who?