Years after the Iraq War declared by western forces to get rid of Saddam Hussein and the Axis of Evil, the former prime minister of the UK, Tony Blair, has publicly stated that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMD; and therefore, the war was based on a clear foundation of untruths.

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Shame on all of them; while Saddam ( photo ) is gone (neither did I love him), the truth is that the nation of Iraq was better off under Saddam than where it is now. They are now in regress thanks to the western forces and their systemic damage. Even Donald Trump admits this.

Truth speaking and truth seeking are critical for all human interventions; which we call the politics of power and authority, in any system of governance, of either peace or war.

What is truth?

Modern science has defined truth as externally verifiable objective measures of fact. These can be tested and reviewed by others and studies can be repeated to establish similar cause and effects; if needed, be studied and restated!

But, modern science alone does not have the privilege of declaring such truths. All religious systems also state truths they believe to be equally valid. These are called religious truths and these are totally believed and adhered to by their faithful.

The original clash of worldviews between the scientific and religious perspectives was first fought by the Copernican and Galilean worldviews of modern science and against the then-Christian and Catholic Worldview of Europe. That dialogue ended with Galileo and Copernicus being right and the Church wrong.

Science had established and verified, through externally valid methods of science, that the Sun and not the Earth was the centre of the Universe. The then-Church was wrong; and thus was also born the theological conflict between Scientific and Faith communities.

I nearly became a victim of this same clash. Consequently, with the help of Islamic scholar SH Nasr, I had to reframe the dialogue into one about meta-paradigms, or ‘weltanschauung’, wherein these so-called conflicts can be resolved, if one takes a rational review of all factors.

What then is personal absolute truth?

Except for modern science-based truths, which are called facts, all other truths fit into the category of subjective truths called values. I use the concept of worldviews as a way to capture all explicit positions or convictions on each of the five dimensions of any definition of such a worldview.

These five dimensions are clarified within my worldview chart as categories of assumptions all humans make about life and matters related to life: whether anthropology, theology, metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics. It was then tabled as an appendix to my doctoral thesis.

Just the past week also, the anchor of CNN’s Global Public Square series, Fareed Zakaria, produced and showed an excellent evaluation of one aspect of such a global public policy issue. His focus was on the issue of USA’s War on Iraq post 911.

What was interesting to me is that Fareed ended the review by stating that he originally supported the war in Iraq when it began, but has now concluded through his report that it was an unmitigated disaster and a road to hell for America’s War for Freedom.

To me, Fareed’s view, fully displayed on CNN’s late night show, was a clear and unequivocal statement of his personal sympathies about the whole issue and concern about the war in Iraq. The analysis declares his worldview about truth matters.

What I have observed in my 32 years of public service is that most of us dare not take a position about specific and particular issues. Instead, usually most compliant public officials vote for the popular public view which guarantees them personal safety and a security of tenure.

The net result is that the objective of seeking public truths gets abandoned and then we see instead tyrants and crooks in the local public square who act as the ‘heroes’ of the more popular model of local gangsterism. Thuggery and local vigilantism increases and deploys fear to rule their world!

What is the alternative then?

All public policy requires good analysis of the root of any problem. I have said this before, but it is also worth repeating. Any good problem analysis will clearly establish the facts that define the gap between the hypothesis and the reality on the ground for any public policy issue.

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In the Iraq War the American leadership was made to believe in the presence of WMD, but that was a total and absolute untruth. Today, everyone knows otherwise; except even the brother of the former president who started the war is still in denial. Tony Blair is being honest and truthful.

Once the problem is well and factually defined, the next step is always to build or develop a hypothesis of causes and effects which contribute to the gap of the problem already defined. These potential cause and effect relationships must now be fully studied and understood.

Next, we must evaluate each of the possible causes to identify the real cause based on facts or at least some plausible hypothesis and conclude with a Pareto 80-20 conclusion. Once we get our Pareto 20 percent which defines the 80 percent of causes we are ready for full appreciation of the problem and a public policy prescription and solution.

Any good public policy requires good science and a lot of good faith about human nature and humanity. Such assumptions already define our worldviews, but most people do not understand that they may have an incomplete or incomprehensive worldview. So, we need to learn more about self and others.

The world can and will be a better place if all of us believe and follow the dictum, ‘tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’. Unfortunately, worldwide, in the world of politics there is usually a gap between their espoused theories and their theories in use.

The CNN review of the Iraq War established that Europe is still reeling from the negative effects of the Middle East crisis with the thousands of refugees flowing into Europe. We need a more humane world with less of wars and leadership by those who preach and teach peace as a very noble and absolute value in life. May God bless the world with understanding of all such revealed truth.