Last week Tony Blair appeared before the Chilcot Inquiry — a public hearing launched by Gordon Brown with the seemingly innocuous purpose of learning the lessons of the Iraq war. Is this a rare example of a party being transparent and turning a critical eye inward on itself — and doing it in front of rolling cameras unlike the U.S. Senate’s health care debate? Certainly not.

The protesters outside the inquiry held signs condemning Blair as a war criminal. A casket was carried by “pallbearers” with bloody hands wearing blood soaked Blair masks with his signature Cheshire cat smile set in ghoulish proportions. Since it is only an inquiry and not a war crimes trial, to these folks the Chilcot Inquiry is a political...