Tuesday, November 16, 2004
A typical Briton: uptight but witty. Yep, sounds about right, I'm just still confused about this whole teeth thing...
[President Jacques] Chirac, speaking ahead of his state visit to London, said that Britain had gained nothing in return for supporting the US over Iraq and that he did not think "it is in the nature of our American friends today" to pay back favours. It sounds a bit harsh but I think it is essentially correct. Though possibly Blair is not doing this for what Britain can get back as he insists he believes killing thousands of Iraqis was morally justifiable. But when you look at history since 11th September 2001 it's hard to see when we've done anything which hasn't been Blair backing up Bush's latest ill-thought out idea.
Although the Newsnight profile of Colin Powell last night said the one time he'd prevailed in policy was when he got the U.S. to go back to the U.N. for that second resolution and had to give that OHP talk about pictures of what might be tyre tracks and what might be WMD factories and innocent Iraqi dialogue which was supposedly coded declarations of the imminent attack on the rest of the world. Blair was also pushing for this. So we see exactly where Blair stands in the estimation of the current Administration: He's seen to be like the dovish Powell, someone to be ignored and sidelined from policy decisions but handy as a figleaf to show the Administration moving beyond it's American-WASP limitations. Now that is going to be Condi's job.
[President Jacques] Chirac, speaking ahead of his state visit to London, said that Britain had gained nothing in return for supporting the US over Iraq and that he did not think "it is in the nature of our American friends today" to pay back favours. It sounds a bit harsh but I think it is essentially correct. Though possibly Blair is not doing this for what Britain can get back as he insists he believes killing thousands of Iraqis was morally justifiable. But when you look at history since 11th September 2001 it's hard to see when we've done anything which hasn't been Blair backing up Bush's latest ill-thought out idea.
Although the Newsnight profile of Colin Powell last night said the one time he'd prevailed in policy was when he got the U.S. to go back to the U.N. for that second resolution and had to give that OHP talk about pictures of what might be tyre tracks and what might be WMD factories and innocent Iraqi dialogue which was supposedly coded declarations of the imminent attack on the rest of the world. Blair was also pushing for this. So we see exactly where Blair stands in the estimation of the current Administration: He's seen to be like the dovish Powell, someone to be ignored and sidelined from policy decisions but handy as a figleaf to show the Administration moving beyond it's American-WASP limitations. Now that is going to be Condi's job.
