Blair sees greater Bush consensus

[emad]

BBC



George W Bush will display a more consensual approach to world politics as he begins his second term as US President, Tony Blair has said.
The prime minister said Mr Bush had learned military force was not the only way to fight terrorism.

He understood that "the best prospect of peaceful co-existence lies in the spread of democracy and human rights", Mr Blair told the Guardian newspaper.

Echoing the new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the prime minister said there has been a clear evolution of US policy since the war in Afghanistan in 2001.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4190279.stm

[TaleWgnDg]

1. Maybe Prime Minister Blair should visit my optometrist? n/t

[emad]

4. Brain scan might be advisable too...

[ernstbass]

2. Tony the lapdog is delusional!

[Spazito]

3. ROFLMAO! The man is delusional!

I read this as a pathetic plea with hopes that if he says it to the media, it will happen, no way!

[bif]

5. The English must get the best reefer

[emad]

6. Guardian's Steve Bell:

[ooglymoogly]

7. your head just goes all fuzzy when you drink warm beer. eom

[emad]

8. The twin pillars

As Bush begins his second term, Tony Blair sees a hopeful 'evolution' in US policy

Timothy Garton Ash
Thursday January 20, 2005
The Guardian




Sitting in his white and blue study at the back of 10 Downing Street, a tired-looking Tony Blair still manages to radiate optimism about the second term of George Bush. There has, he says, been a clear "evolution" of American policy. The prime minister has witnessed this in successive conversations with the president.
"Evolution comes from experience." In a learning process that started with Afghanistan, the administration has come to understand that "in the end, we can take security and military measures against terrorism but ... the best prospect of peaceful coexistence lies in the spread of democracy and human rights".

So has Bush become a multilateralist?

Well, Blair can't speak for the president, but "it is significant, in my view, that he is coming to Europe as his first foreign visit..." And it's obvious that "if you are in the position of trying to spread values - to give people greater freedom and democratic rights - it is better to try and do that with other countries".

But obvious to whom? Does Blair really think that he can get a Bush administration to take seriously his own priorities for Britain's 2005 presidency of the G8 - action on Africa and climate change? Yes. The United States won't sign the Kyoto protocol, but Washington may be persuaded to take some of the steps proposed in the McCain-Lieberman bill, which is currently before the US Congress. On these issues, and on Blair's other top priority - a peace settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians - "it is possible to construct an international agenda that is more consensual, more multilateral than what has gone before".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1394267,00.html

TWIN PILLARS? Obviously NOT the Seven Pillars of Wisdom...

[pdxmom]

9. Caught between a rock and a hard place

Has to suck up to Bush and still try to get re-elected. He's hoping that if he says something, it will make it so. Blair could have been great, if he hadn't hooked up with the yahoo in the WH. That will be his legacy.

[Boswells_Johnson]

10. He also saw WMDs n/t

[NVMojo]

11. this guy is out of his flipping brain, or whatever it is he has up there .

[leesa]

12. That's right. And the US Senate just proved it to the world.

[emad]

13. US divided as Bush is sworn in : BBC

By Michael Buchanan
BBC News, Washington

George W Bush may have won the popular vote, but as he begins his second term, American opinion on him and his policies seems as divided as ever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4189583.stm

[Supersedeas]

14. only 45 minutes until DIPLOMACY begins