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Brit Prime Minister Blair to Step Down in June
But he still says he was right about Iraq.
|5.10.07 @ 12:22PM|#
Likelihood of a British declaration of victory and withdrawal from Southern Iraq in the July / August / September window just went way up.
|5.10.07 @ 12:24PM|#
Am I the Kwisatz Haderach or didn't Blair state or strongly
imply some time ago that he'd step down this year? With Gordon
Brown likely to take the reins? The actual announcement is still
news, of course, but the coverage I've seen makes it sound like a
surprise.
If it turns out that I am prescient, I will take the next few
months to make $100-200 billion, after which I'll buy a libertarian
candidate into the White House. And another one into a home on
Downing Street, while I'm at it. Woo-hoo!
|5.10.07 @ 12:29PM|#
Pro Lib,
You think you can buy a libertarian into the White House for a mere
$100x10^9? You misunderestimate the hurdles we face.
|5.10.07 @ 12:42PM|#
Warren,
Mere money, no. My creative spending of that much money? Hell,
yeah. Let's just say that Oprah's endorsement of libertarianism is
only the beginning.
America is so weak and predictable. When the LP begins sending
naked hotties door to door to canvas votes, the LP will already
have won.
Russ 2000|5.10.07 @ 12:47PM|#
When the LP begins sending naked hotties door to door to
canvas votes, the LP will already have won.
There's far too much honesty in that approach to succeed.
thoreau|5.10.07 @ 12:49PM|#
Well, I'm glad that one of the thugs who helped start the war is leaving office.
|5.10.07 @ 12:55PM|#
Still, I would like to live so long as to see a campaign that
honest.
Strike that, I actually have seen campaigns that honest (and
successful even)... When I was stationed in Italy. The last thing I
want is for our system of government to resemble that openly
corrupt laughing stock of civilization.
|5.10.07 @ 1:40PM|#
Yes Grotius, a thug. You know, there are nothing but thugs sitting opposite thoreau on this issue. He happened to guess right on WMD, so now anyone who was concerned about it is a murderous thug. Like Tony Blair.
Grotius|5.10.07 @ 1:46PM|#
JasonL,
Well, as much as I think that Blair is wrong I don't consider him a
thug. I reserve the word thug for violent criminals and perhaps
dictator types. Blair fits into neither of those criteria.
|5.10.07 @ 1:47PM|#
Tony Blair is a thug because he continued to support the war even after every manufactured pretext for it was exposed.
Grotius|5.10.07 @ 1:52PM|#
Warren,
Well, not every justification for the war was demonstrated to be in
error, though some might not find those justifications
acceptable.
Furthermore, it is perfectly legitimate to maintain support for the
war on a changed basis than one's initial position. I don't know if
that is what Blair did, I am just thinking of the issue in general
terms.
|5.10.07 @ 1:56PM|#
Nice crowd. So, the notion that Blair was sincerely concerned
about an issue that couldn't be proven one way or the other isn't
even on the table?
I understand Grotius' view: he was wrong on risk assessment and at
the end of the day he didn't help even though he thought the
situation could be improved.
I don't understand "He was a goon. He was a thug."
|5.10.07 @ 2:25PM|#
You gotta give it to Blair, he must have at least really believed the war was required since he pretty much ruined his career and his party by attaching his wagon to that train wreck...It was very unpopular from the get-go in Britian and he went along and has stuck with it, now to his bitter end...A possible lesson for the morons running for GOP nomination...
|5.10.07 @ 2:27PM|#
Color me cynical, but my thought at the time of the run-up was
that Blair was using opportunity to pull the British equivalent of
the Permanent Republican Majority ploy (substitute Labour for
Republican) that was happening here. Exploit 9/11 for political
gain? Well, it is for a good end, so why not?
Go off and throw a splendid little war, rid the world of a thug,
discover the WMDs that the UN obviously missed and then rub their
sanctimonious fucking noses in it, have a big parade, bring the
lads home by summers-end and then reap the political benefits of
the glorious victory for years to come.
Blair's problem was that Rumsfeld et al were so sure that Saddam
was packing (WMD that is) that they neglected to bring a along a
throw-down nuke to placate the Internal Affairs boyos.
So, in my book, Blair is not a goon or a thug. Just craven.
|5.10.07 @ 2:36PM|#
Oh, I don't know. All told, Britain tends to see more future
sticking close to the U.S. than to Europe, which both of our
countries view as batshit insane. If that means occasionally
getting bogged down in something silly or questionable, well,
that's the price of alliance. Blair's no fool, but he got caught in
a lose-lose situation. And he lost.
Let's all remember, too, that if Iraq had become a shiny little
liberal nation, all would've been forgiven as far as WMDs, etc.
went. But, as Cheney said in the first Gulf War, trying to get
these people to play nice together (i.e., Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites,
etc.) is well nigh impossible. Oops.
Rich|5.10.07 @ 3:02PM|#
Pro Lib: Yes, Blair announced (or at least assumed everyone knew) that he was stepping down, months ago. Even British GQ was interviewing Gordon Brown back then with a "So what will you do when you're PM?" slant.
|5.10.07 @ 3:04PM|#
Rich,
I feared it was so. Better put that Water of Life back in the
'fridge. And no libertarian president, either. Shucks.
|5.10.07 @ 4:17PM|#
He probably calculates its best to go before he is brought down anyway. He thinks he has a chance to find another role in life other than defendant, which is what his political bagmen face given there is corruption scandal about to end up in the UK courts.
|5.10.07 @ 4:46PM|#
My prescience is better than that. I predict that Street
Sense won the Kentucky Derby.
What do you mean, what's wrong with my tenses? Time is
relative.
Grotius|5.10.07 @ 4:57PM|#
Pro Libertate,
The UK's relationship with Europe waxes and wanes, as it does with
the U.S. Consider that neither the UK nor any other nation in NATO
got involved in Viet Nam. The so-called "special relationship" is
as often as not a myth rather than a reality.
|5.10.07 @ 5:03PM|#
Grotius,
Oh, I agree. It's just waxing (or waxed?) right now. Certain Middle
East scholars might point to a time where we were not quite on the
same side not so long ago.
Still, I think we're pretty firm allies, for the most part. I even
think that of most of the rest of Europe, to a lesser extent,
though we argue and bicker like a family living too close
together.
|5.10.07 @ 5:32PM|#
I prefer Henry VIII's method of dealing with disgraced Prime
Ministers. [Chancellors, actually, which was the equivalent post in
those days.]
:( |--
|5.10.07 @ 6:03PM|#
"though we argue and bicker like a family living too close
together"
Yeah. Sharing the same planet with the French can be a pain.
On second thought, make that "the same galaxy".
|5.10.07 @ 6:08PM|#
Aresen,
You only say that because of Quebec. You should've put them down,
long ago. Like we did. See any French here? Nope. And that little
bit of French culture left in Louisiana was distorted and twisted
out of any recognizable form. Which is the American way. Now we
just have quaint remnants like New Orleans or parts of
Illinois--"Look, honey, there were some French people here once.
Who knew?"
However, French people in France I've got no problem with.
|5.10.07 @ 6:12PM|#
Consider that neither the UK nor any other nation in NATO
got involved in Viet Nam.
I know a certain French Gulf War veteran who would be ashamed of
you for forgetting his country.
thoreau|5.10.07 @ 11:18PM|#
If somebody looks at the blood-drenched disaster that he helped
create and thinks that he did the right thing, that makes him a
thug.
It really is that simple, sometimes. Or at least it is when the
disaster is bad enough. This one is.
Britney Spears in a bikini|5.11.07 @ 8:28AM|#
Well, calling him a 'thug' may be a semantic quibble.
Interestingly, I remember a time when he was offhandedly referred
to as 'the British Bill Clinton.' And not just by Americans.
One could say that in any case, we have probably seen the last of
him; but now begin his terribly lucrative speaking-engagement
tours.
As well as any cushy jobs lined up by the Bush admin for their boy
on Downing Street.
|5.11.07 @ 8:54AM|#
Brown is a boob. He was responsible for selling off half of the UK's stockpile of gold at the absolute nadir of the gold price in 2000. Gold market followers refer to that low in the gold price ($252 per ounce) as the "Brown bottom".
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