Blair: boots on the ground needed in anti-IS fight

Former UK Prime Minister and current Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair has said that troops on the ground may be the only way to defeat Islamic State militants.

Blair also used the essay, published on his own website on Monday, to call for a dramatic shift in Western policy to target “Islamism” in general, which he dubbed “the spectrum [of religious ideology] that creates the fringe.”

In the essay, Blair who presided over the UK’s 2003 military foray into Iraq as well as the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, wrote that “air power alone will not suffice.”

“They can be hemmed in, harried and to a degree contained by air power. But they can't be defeated by it."

However, he stressed that he was not calling for a repeat of the lengthy ground occupations seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Blair’s comments came as a former US Secretary of Defence made similar comments on Sunday, saying that the mission to “degrade and destroy” IS would require “boots on the ground.”

Robert Gates, who served as a national security adviser during the 1991 US-led coalition operation against Iraq, said that “most military people believe…that some small number of American advisers, trainers, Special Forces and forward spotters, forward air controllers are going to have to be in harm’s way.”

Blair mirrored these views by noting that, while “armies of occupation” are to be avoided, sending in ground troops with “special capabilities” is unavoidable if the anti-IS coalition is to succeed in fully rooting out the group.

Though he called for a ground invasion to be launched, Blair shied away from advising that Western allies commit troops to the campaign.

He suggested that regional powers could be the ones to send in troops, telling the BBC that there is “no appetite for ground engagement in the West.”

Still, he said in an interview published on Monday that the West “cannot in all circumstances rule [sending troops] out.”

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, however, was sceptical as to whether Blair’s comments would have any traction.

The pressure from former politicians comes as UK Prime Minister David Cameron prepares for a meeting of the UN Security Council headed by US President Barack Obama in New York on Wednesday.

Blair's role in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan was mentioned by an Islamic State militant in a recent video in which the group announced the beheading of a British hostage, David Haines.

However, criticism of the former British premier over his role in the Iraq war has been widespread, both in the UK and internationally.

And the recent decision by GQ Magazine to present the award of philanthropist of the year to Blair has drawn much ridicule.  

"Most people need no reminders that Tony Blair is a vilified figure both nationally and on the world stage," wrote Steven O’Brien in The London Magazine.

"Blair, the arch misanthropist grins as he clutches his trophy, even as the innocent continue to suffer and die because of his deeds," he added.