I was driving home to the Al Rantel’s show yesterday, listening to Al and John LeBoutillier work themselves into a lather over so-called mistakes made by Tony Blair. As far as I could tell – these guys often throw off more heat than light – their beef with Blair was that he swallowed Bush’s WMD intell whole (although he – Blair – knew better), so that he – Blair – could go join the US in the Iraq invasion.
Hmmm…. Well, who’s to know the inside of something like that? But does it matter? And what does this really tell us about Tony Blair, the man they were choosing to evaluate in such a jejune manner?
One thing I am clear about is the Blair they were discussing was far from the man I observed in those days. I can hardly remember Blair discussing WMDs in the run-up to the Iraq War. That was never his reason (primary anyway) for advocating action against Saddam. He was always talking democracy, democracy, democracy. He was a believer in bringing rational government to the MidEast and, through that, peace for all of us.
Blair was our democratic idealist and a man of great eloquence. He gave voice to things Bush, and most other American politicians of recent vintage, do not have the skills to articulate. That man has been destroyed and the people who killed him should be ashamed of themselves, ashamed of the envy and cowardice that motivated them. i wonder if LeBoutillier and Rantel realize how small-minded they sounded.
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8 Comments
1. Luther McLeod:Roger
I agree with most of what you say. Blair was/is a great orator. I do believe he meant it. And you are surely correct as too his ability to voice what our politician’s cannot. I assuredly appreciate that, from him.
But…he has also allowed, even encouraged, the neutrality or outright retreat of the British democratic soul, all in all. A socialist at heart who perhaps understands the forces that gave him freedom to act domestically as he dared not internationally. Two faces there.
Where is PeterUK when you need him?
May 11, 2007 - 9:57 pm 2. Terrye:I can remember Blair advocating for the removal of Saddam before Bush ever became president. Back in 1998 when Clinton was president, Blair supported Clinton’s bombing campaign against Saddam’s weapons facilities. He also made it plain that he felt that Britain had a responsibility to help bring representative government to the region because of the history of Britain in the region and because it was the right thing to do.
I don’t really care of Blair is a socialist, his domestic policies are of no concern to me, I am an American.
May 12, 2007 - 9:28 am 3. Cap'n Billy:Not that I have the qualifications to judge these things, but I doubt very much if Blair has been destroyed. I’m pretty sure he is set for a very nice rest of his life, and deservedly so. Could be that he’s been “destroyed” in the same sense that Winston Churchill was destroyed in the thirties, and then in 1945 when he was voted out of office after his countrymen felt safe again. Even that wasn’t the end, as he was voted back in as PM in the fifties.
Blair was a big surprise to me, as I had developed a strong dislike to him when he was in opposition and I regularly watched “Question Time” on C-Span. I would have lost a lot of money betting against him being our staunchest ally in this war. I just wish our own president could articulate with the same clarity as him.
May 12, 2007 - 12:08 pm 4. Terrye:Well, people were nasty to Thatcher and Churchill both when they left office. It is only now that people are beginning to think Maggie Thatcher might not have been so bad after all. It seems to take about 20-30 years before people gain that kind of respect. They rarely get in while in office.
May 12, 2007 - 12:16 pm 5. Luther McLeod:I care about Blair being a socialist to the extent that England remain a strong and trusted ally. Time will tell, but they appear to be headed in a direction which will place our alliance in doubt, or at the least, its usefulness to this country. Politically and militarily they grow weaker by the day. Their domestic policies directly influence their stature on the world stage. It saddens me too see it.
May 12, 2007 - 12:48 pm 6. Terrye:Luther:
If that is the case, the source of the problem runs much deeper than Tony Blair.
May 12, 2007 - 2:16 pm 7. Luther McLeod:Terrye
I don’t know that it is the case, just my opinion. In any event he is either culpable or an enabler. But the Brit’s vote just as we do and if that is the way they wish to proceed, it is no business of mine, of course. As I said, I’m just saddened that such a great country appears to be taking the socialist path. And from a more realistic perspective that it will be one less ally of freedom if such is the case.
May 12, 2007 - 3:04 pm 8. Coisty:Speaking, uh typing, as a British subject, uh citizen, I consider Blair to be the most destructive leader in the modern history of Britain. From the moment he got elected to his long overdue resignation he worked long and hard to eradicate Britishness at every level imagineable.
His legacy, in addition to his systematic destruction of every valuable official and unofficial symbol of Britishness, is the hundreds of thousands of real British leaving the country every year and their replacement with unemployable Brit-hating Third World trash. Then there’s his pathetic abject surrender to the Brussels bureaucrats. And don’t get me started on his “hate speech” laws that have already resulted in the imprisonment of several politically incorrect Brits. Has such a traitor ever ruled any Western nation-state? I can’t think of one. Of course he’d probably take pride in being called a traitor as he clearly hated his own people.
I wish Blair’s children could be forced to live in a working class estate where non-whites rule over the indigenous populuation. They’ll never suffer like Charlene Downes or Kriss Donald (google their names). Unfortunately the Blair children will probably live happy lives. There really is no justice in the world.
May 12, 2007 - 9:45 pm