Blair seeks distance from Bush for elections

[cal04]

I know he has to be joking

Tony Blair, believes the time is now ripe to show he is not George W Bush's poodle following the handover of sovereignty to Iraq.
TONY Blair is to drop his policy of unflinching support of George Bush’s foreign policy, deciding that the handover of power in Iraq has now released him from his diplomatic obligations. The Prime Minister has made it clear to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary and Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, that they can now point out where disagreement with the Bush administration occurs.

The decision marks a diplomatic watershed in the war on terrorism, where Mr Blair has not allowed a hint of dissent between his government and the Bush administration on military policy since the attacks of 11 September, 2001. Mr Blair arrives back in London today after meeting the US president twice over the course of the month. He is now not expected to hold another one-to-one meeting with Mr Bush until after the November US election.

The Scotsman understands that Mr Blair believes the handover of power marks the moment when he can confront claims that he acts as Mr Bush’s "poodle" - making criticisms clear when they arise. The change of tack was signalled yesterday when Mr Straw refused to defend the Bush administration’s faith in the quick and easy conversion of Iraq to democracy after the fall of Saddam Hussein. "It’s for them to explain their position," Mr Straw said. He then emphasised the differences between a Labour MP and the Republican government. "It’s hardly a great surprise that I don’t subscribe to a neoconservative view of life," he said. He also acknowledged that the British government believes the Americans were wrong to sack Saddam’s army as part of a de-Baathification policy to purge the country of the old regime.

"I accept, with the benefit of hindsight, there were decisions made, for example in respect of de-Baathification, which might have been done differently," he said. "Probably the de-Baathification went too far." The Prime Minister himself said in a two-hour Channel Four interview that he found the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison "revolting". He also acknowledged that the British government believes the Americans were wrong to sack Saddam’s army as part of a de-Baathification policy to purge the country of the old regime.

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=746482004&20040630054855

[Jack Rabbit]

1. George W. Blair wants distance from Bush?

Good luck.

[MattNC]

2. Anyone that's taken the time

to actually do some research on Blair knows perfectly well that he's no "poodle" to Bush. He's also still solidly progressive on many issues and I think a lot of people here overlook that.

[NEOBuckeye]

3. Be that as it may, he can't shake the PERCEPTION that he's Bush's lapdog

...which undermines and negates much of the good that would come out of Blair's progressivism.

[MattNC]

6. certainly true n/t

[LTR]

4. Blair's an opportunist and an ass kisser

Look how fast he ditched his buddy Bill Clinton (called him 'weird').

And now he's likely practicing by kissing pictures of Kerry's behind.

How did Great Britain wind up with such a sniveling little weasle for a Prime Minister?

[BurtWorm]

5. Is this what "distance" looks like?

It looks more like true love to me.

[Gloria]

7. Another story from the Scotsman....

4//The Scotsman, UK Tue 29 Jun 2004

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=742492004



DIFFERENT ELECTIONS BATTLES COULD SEPARATE UNITED BUSH AND BLAIR

Fraser Nelson, Political Editor



They looked at their watches, and smiled. George Bush and Tony Blair had known for a week about the early handover of power and scribbled notes to each other yesterday at the NATO summit in Istanbul when they knew the deed was done.

Afterwards, both the United States president and the Prime Minister spoke as if it was a matter of closure: Iraq was once a dictatorship; now it has its own free government committed to democracy.

But the relief yesterday was temporary. The political battle for both men is far from over: both are facing re- election and both will be haunted by the situation in Iraq every step of the way.

The Washington administration seems to be admitting a quiet defeat on the "Bush doctrine" - a neoconservative vision of pre-emption that meant that the US would take out a threat while it was emerging. Any pre-emptive attack would have to be based on intelligence - and the furore about the use of intelligence makes it unlikely that any dossier would be trusted in future. For Mr Bush, this is a real loss.

Mr Blair, however, has more reason to be downbeat. His case for war with Iraq was always far more narrow than that of the US president - and this predicament can be traced to a fundamental error that he made in 1975. This was the year he joined the Labour Party.

MORE

[cal04]

8. Here's another one

America's military commander in Iraq ordered British troops to prepare a full-scale ground offensive against Iranian forces that had crossed the border and grabbed disputed territory, a senior officer has disclosed.

An attack would almost certainly have provoked open conflict with Iran. But the British chose instead to resolve the matter through diplomatic channels. Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez
"If we had attacked the Iranian positions, all hell would have broken loose," a defence source said yesterday. "We would have had the Iranians to our front and the Iraqi insurgents picking us off at the rear."

The Iran-Iraq incident lasted around a week and was resolved by a telephone conversation between Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Kamal Kharrazi, his Iranian counterpart, British officials said.
It did look rather nasty at the time," one official said. "But we were always confident it was a mistake and could be resolved by diplomatic means. We got in touch with Baghdad and said, 'Don't do anything silly; we are talking to the Iranians.' " While Mr Straw was trying to resolve the issue peacefully, British military commanders on the ground were calming their Iranian counterparts, the ministry said.


UK nearly attacked Iran, scroll down
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=PHNCZJDTDWNUPQFIQMGSM5OAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/06/30/wiran30.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/06/30/ixnewstop.html

[Melsky]

9. Little late, Tony

Maybe would have worked a year ago,