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A BRITISH STATESMAN
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Tony
Blair was crucified by the British press for
his alliance with the Americans.
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A Popular Politician
Tony Blair, Britain's socialist Prime Minister and
a champion of international consensus was one of the
most popular politicians in Britain.
His alliance with American President George W. Bush
is one of the great political mysteries of recent
history. As the war with Iraq began it nearly cost
him the affection of his people and the solidarity
of his party. 139 of his own MP's voted against his
call to war and three of his minister's resigned.
(read more about the coalition)
An Unpopular Decision
Graham Allan, a Labour MP helped lead the mutiny against
Blair.
"This just makes no sense
in terms of the objectives that we have in our
foreign policy. We’re going to create more
terrorists, we’re going to undermine the
alliances that we have, we’re going to devalue
the United Nations. We’re going to split
our own prime minister from his party, his parliament
and his people."
In the weeks prior to the war, Tony
Blair seemed oblivious to public or party opposition.
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Andrew
Rawnsley remembers a time when Blair never
went against public opinion.
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Andrew Rawnsley, the associate
editor of the Observer newspaper says the Prime Minister,
once called 'Tony the Timid' has become 'Blair the
Bold.'
"Another side of Tony Blair,
which certainly in his first term in Government
tended to be very subordinate, 'Tony the Timid'.
And now there’s 'Blair the Bold'... We occasionally
saw 'Blair the Bold' in expression in the first
term, but not that often. This is a man who, when
he discovers what he believes in, when he finds
a cause, he’s really committed to, goes
at it with a courage many would say recklessness."
The British
Response
But this time Tony Blair had a crisis on his hands.
He encountered withering disapproval by the British
media. His traditional supporters, the homemakers,
the blue-collar socialists, and the urban commuters
deserted him in droves.
He found enthusiastic approval in an unlikely quarter;
the Tory establishment. Margaret Thatcher's former
foreign policy advisor, Lord Charles Powell of Bayswater
says that Blair didn't blindly follow the American
agenda as others have suggested.
"Tony Blair has from the beginning
acted as he saw right, what he thought best from
the point of view of British interests. I think
Tony Blair, like previous British governments,
has been at the heart of the conflict with Saddam
Hussein’s Iraq from the beginning. After
all, which country contributed most in 1991 after
the United States? It was Britain."
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The
1991 Desert Storm War had the backing of the
international community and the U.N.
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But in 1991, the previous
British government had the support of the UN and
the British people. The troops fighting in Operation
Desert Storm knew that Iraq was the aggressor and
that they were in a legal war to liberate Kuwait.
Consequences of a Perilous Gamble
Tony Blair gambled that the American government
could be influenced and that the U.N. would back
a war against Iraq. He was wrong on both counts.
(read more about the U.S.
Road to War)
Journalist Andrew Rawnsley believes that Tony Blair
may have been used by the Americans.
"Now the question
Tony Blair will have to ask himself is whether
in the end he was always played for a sucker,
that the United States were quite happy to go
along the United Nations route because they quite
weren’t ready to launch military action
against Saddam Hussein. They would give him the
months but they were months they needed anyway
to build up their forces in the Gulf."
At the very least, former
U.N. Ambassador, Sir Crispin Tickell says Tony Blair
may not have made a wise decision.
Sir
Crispin Tickell: "The Americans were
already set on a course of action, and they didn’t
really want to do anything except enlist international
opinion to their support, they weren’t actually
in a listening mode. But obviously it was the
British Prime Minister’s view was different
and he believed that Bush would listen."
the fifth estate:
WAS THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER FOOLHARDY, OVERLY
OPTIMISTIC, OR TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING?
Sir Crispin Tickell:
"I’m sure he was trying to do the right
thing, I mean he’s a man of transparent
integrity. Whether he was wise in trying to do
the right thing, is another matter."
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