To: letters@guardian.co.uk
Re: Helping politicians face up to their mistakes
Date: Monday 6 September 04

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

There have been recent calls, in the Guardian and elsewhere, for the Prime Minister to admit that he was wrong in taking Britain into the Iraq war and to apologize for it, but I don't think the authors of these calls are really aware of what they are asking for.

 

Admitting a mistake is often difficult for anyone, even at the best of times, i.e. under circumstances that are relatively harmless. So how on earth can you expect the Prime Minister to admit, even to himself, to making a mistake of historic dimensions, which has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives?

 

President Putin is in a similar situation in respect to Chechen terrorism, which, most objective observers agree, his policies have contributed to, if not been the prime cause of, but which he will not, probably cannot even to himself, admit to. As a result, miskaken policies continue to be pursued with tragic consequences; matters get even worse, and the worse things get the more difficult it is for those responsible to admit (or even contemplate) their own culpability. A vicious circle is created which can, and often has, cost many thousands of lives.

 

We need ways of helping decision makers face up to the possibility of them having taken wrong decisions, taking into account that the bigger the mistake the more difficult it is to admit to. Our instincts and political culture, unfortunately, do the very opposite: admitting a mistake, especially a serious one, opens you up to attack by opponents who will exploit such "weakness" mercilessly in their pursuit of political advantage. President Putin seems intent on pursuing his mistaken policies towards Chechen with increased vigour.

 

Returning to Mr Blair's decision to go to war against Iraq. I think we should leave it for future historians to judge whether or not it was a mistake. Who can doubt that Tony Blair had hoped that things would go better than they have. If he'd known then what he knows now, I very much doubt he would have taken us to war; but that decision and what followed from it cannot be reversed. It got rid of a brutal dictatorship, which was a good thing, and surely now all efforts should be directed towards making the most of the new situation. What we cannot do (or do at our peril) is simply pull out and allow chaos, another brutal dictatorship, or Islamic fundamentalism to take over. Although I sometimes get the impression that there are some Guardian writers who, for ideological reasons, would rather see this than for the American lead coalition to succeed.