Blair refuses to back Iran strike

[sabra]

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=577092006

Blair refuses to back Iran strike

TONY Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday.

Amid increasing tension over Tehran's attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity, the Prime Minister has laid bare the limits of his support for President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is calling on the United Nations to consider new sanctions against Tehran when the Security Council meets next week to discuss the developing crisis. Blair is expected to support the call for a "Chapter 7" resolution, which could effectively isolate Iran from the international community.

But, in the midst of international opposition to a pre-emptive strike on Tehran, and Britain's military commitments around the world, the government maintains it cannot contribute to a military assault. "We will support the diplomatic moves, at best," a Foreign Office source told Scotland on Sunday. "But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike."

[still_one]

1. I would like to think the article is right

but frankly, news accounts from the scotsman do not seem that accurate in my experience

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. I've never had a problem

with the Scotsman.

They mostly copy what's in the BBC and AP.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. If true, this would be great news. K&R

How sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a thankless lapdog!

[HereSince1628]

7. If true, it means Bush is shopping the idea of an attack

Bush might like to have British support, but believe me, Bush is nuts and perfectly willing to go it alone.

The neocons and sycophants around him will convince him its a slam dunk.

I don't fing the notion that Bush has approached the British at all reasurring.

[atreides1]

25. Bush isn't going anywhere

Yes he is probably nuttier then a Snickers bar, but the only ones going it alone will be the men and women of the US military. Bush and his war mongering blood thirsty supporters will be nice and safe while the military dies in vast numbers.

It's up to the troops to decide if they wish to continue to follow the orders of a madman and die, or to say no, and save this country and their comrades in arms. And those who support the troops better be ready to take sides, if the military does decide to support and defend the Constitution.

[eppur_se_muova]

34. I think Bliar could figure this out for himself, and he's pre-empting.

He's been used and abused by **, and any more could bring on a fall of his gov't.

[saltpoint]

4. Every once in a while somebody stands up on his own two feet.

Blair in the early going was one of my favorites. His lap-dogging with Dubya on Iraq chilled me to the bone, though, and the Prime Minister and I have not been on good terms since.

With this news, assuming it's accurate, I'm willing to re-open diplomatic ties if Tony is.

Bush needs to hear from Blair that an assault on Iran is a massively stupid idea.

Good for Tony.

[saigon68]

9. well he is a Poodle and sits in the Chimp's Lap

[ms liberty]

10. My poodle said to tell you, he's insulted...

he says poodles are far more discriminating than Blair; and as an evolved creature he has certainly never believed any of *'s lies. He wants to make sure everyone understands that if he encountered either of those unpleasant persons, he would chew their feet off at the ankles. If more humans had the intelligence of he and his canine bretheren, that imbecile * would never have entered the WH in the first place.

[saigon68]

18. I love dogs

My best friend has a standard poodle.

It is the smartest dog I have ever seen.

In some respects it is a sin that BOZO BLAIR ever attracted the Poodle handle to begin with.

I prefer "sea cucumber" but I haven't seen a cartoon with Blair posing as a sea cucumber.

[struggle4progress]

24. I dunno. The sea cucumbers I've met have all been peaceful ..

.. and I never knew any of them to tell lies for political gain ...

[saigon68]

37. and they never fed a starving man

Helped a child to read

or cared for a sick elderly person with no money

[struggle4progress]

38. Touche. I once knew a child who unsuccessfully attempted to eat one.

[saltpoint]

11. If the report we're getting is accurate, it sounds like the lapdog has

jumped off its master's lap and escaped back into the woods.

I hope for the best.

[TheBaldyMan]

16. not a poodle, a prison bitch n/t

[calimary]

27. Tony's obviously got his eye on other things...

Not just the will of the British people, who probably feel about another war about the same as most Americans (with any horse sense and grip on reality) do. Another episode of him bedding down with georgie would be too much for the British public to stomach, and he knows it. I suspect he's already determined how big a poodle he can afford to be, and this oversteps the limit.

Besides that, bet on this: he's watching berlusconi in Italy go down, kicking and screaming and scratching, and he probably can't help noticing that he's now the only one left of the major European powers ("New Europe," I suppose) who backed bush on Iraq. Aznar's long gone in Spain. The voters (a majority of whom did NOT support the war) saw to that a couple of years ago. berlusconi just got the heave-ho, too, although he's trying like hell to salvage some sort of power base and is being a TRUE "sore loserman," and Blair probably feels as though he's next. As he should, frankly.

[Greeby]

5. The local council elections are on May 4th

These are more-or-less our version of the midterms. Along with the attendant desire to punish the incumbent party.
If Labour take another hammering as they did in the General Election, they might find the backbone to throw President Tony out

[paul_fromatlanta]

6. If we are going to do it any way better to have somebody to share blame

[sweetheart]

8. L.I.E.

When push comes to shove, british refuelling tankers will
help refuel the aircraft en-attack, and britsih aircraft
will fly fucking wing to wing, because we are mates and
won't be attacknig fucking iran, because it won't be to
either of our advantages, british or american.

But enough of the smiles and the explanations by a
known liar, deciever, and more lies, whatever.

Until Bush and Blair are gone, i'll be perpetually in a
state of serious upset.. i'm really upset about the very
even remote remote inkling of nuclear war in my lifetime...
that another child would ever have to know the terror
of being told, as i was, that the strong liklihood of
dying in a nuclear holocaust was most probablle, get under
the desk so you'll live an extra day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Yes - I'd lay odds on Diego Garcia being used by the Americans

which makes the parallel with Libya more like the situation 20 years ago, when the Maggie-Ronnie love fest culminated in bombing Libya, killing about 100 people, including Gaddafi's adopted baby.

If Blair really wanted to be independent, he'd public insist that Diego Garcia wasn't used. Not that he could do anything to stop it, of course, but it would turn it into a militaty dispute between the UK and the USA, and there might be some things Britain could do to inconvenience Bush.

[sweetheart]

20. The interconnection of forces would be called in to question

And given the incredible linkage of intelligence,
satellite guidance, and nuclear weapons technologies,
of aircraft systems, and diplomatic goodiwll, blair
has always had the power, by simply being outspoken
with criticism that allows americans to save face,
"give a bad dog a good name." He's not used that
bully pulpit... it is his best power, to address
the publics on both sides of the atlantic against
the war mongers... but problem... there.

[LynnTheDem]

12. WTF??? Tehran's attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity

Ummm...WHAT attempt would that be??? Same as Saddam Hussein's attempt to buy yellowcake from Niger???

Where has the REAL media gone; the media that was into FACTS.

[antonialee839]

13. Blair can't back an Iran strike because

the people would storm 10 Downing Street with pitchforks.

[rodeodance]

14. yeah, i sense the Brits are ready for Revolt.

[BooScout]

17. Blair's in big trouble already.....

For the war in Iraq and just recently selling peerages. He's hopefully on the way out before the end of the year........at least that's my feverant hope.

[Henny Penny]

31. mine too...

but unfortunately the enquiry into cash for peerages will keep Blair in place. Brown or whoever is next in line for the job won't want to be associated with it in any way whilst that is ongoing. And it could drag on...

[fedsron2us]

19. The luck and the money has run out for Blair

The peerages for loans scandals has mired his government in sleaze. At the same time his important domestic policy initiatives in areas such as the National Health service are in crisis. Most of the British public are sick of his vainglorious foreign policy initiatives which somehow always seem to end in more war and greater international instability. This disillusion has seeped through the membership of the Labour party where many want Blair to resign before he can inflict serious damage on their electoral prospects. Ministers aware of the discontent are spending increasing amounts of time plotting to ensure that their preferred candidate becomes the next Prime Minister. The Foreign Office clearly does not want a war with Iran and the Treasury has probably told the government that the country can not afford it. Most importantly, the generals are aware that the ongoing commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan has put a huge strain on the British forces and led to growing insubordination in the ranks. I suspect that in private they have been warning the politicians that another major operation will break the military so badly that it may take a generation for it to recover. With opposition from all these major areas of government Blair would find it very difficult to participate directly in any attack on Iran. Of course, the US will to use its miltary bases in the UK and other British territories to conduct the operation but everyone knows that these facilities belong to the British crown in name only. In reality they have been part of the American miltary machine for decades. UK politicians will not openly challenge their masters in the White House. Instead they are probably going to sit on their hands and hope that further miltary failures combined with growing discontent amongst some US conservatives about the failures of US foreign policy will eventually lead the Bush empire to unravel.

[calimary]

30. Very insightful analysis. Makes a WHOLE LOT of sense to me.

I bet even now there's some furious jockeying for position among the ministers over there, who will be trying to salvage their power bases against how badly Mr. Poodle has compromised them by selling his soul to bush.

I know Tony feels the cold breath of the political Grim Reaper at the back of his collar. And mark my words - there's no way that berlusconi's problems in Italy have escaped his notice, either.

BTW - i LOVE the use of the word "vainglorious"! GREAT word! You don't get to hear it that often.

[PaDem]

21. Mr. Blair, you're either with us or against us........

you must hate freedom.

[jwirr]

22. I think Blair made the only choice he has. If he follows *ss into

another war he will be out. England was not happy with is first attempt to make *ass happy.

[IndianaGreen]

23. Once Blair goes back to Crawford to visit his master

he will once again become an obedient DALEK.

Dalek
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Daleks (pronounced "DAH-lecks" or "DAH-licks") are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

<snip>

The term is sometimes used in a metaphorical sense to describe people, usually figures in authority, who act like robots unable to break their programming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek

[0007]

26. I think so also!

[VegasWolf]

28. Good for Blair. Bush himself said it best, "Fool me once, uh, err, ahh,

shame on you; fool me again, err, ah, uh, you cain't get fooled again!"

[ckramer]

29. This translates to " we were wrong helping Bush the first time"

It's not easy living like a lapdog.

[Demeter]

32. Who Says You Can't Teach An Old Poodle New Tricks?

Just slap him around with Reality a few times.....

[depakid]

33. Once bitten twice shy?

Stay tuned....

[pinniped]

35. I dunno about this one. *'s whore even changed his mind on global....

warming.

He's always taken his orders from * in the past.

Why the big change?

Are these two idiots playing good cop bad cop?

[sofa king]

36. Oh, yes, the Brits are contributing.

A while back I made some guesses about what would be some warning signs of an impending American invasion of Khuzestan and Bushehr Provinces. Historically and geographically, any invasion of those areas from Iraq would have to move through the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. Most of Iran's oil is in those two provinces.

The British contribution to the invasion, I suggested, would be to get the hell out of the way. Currently, British troops are stationed along the Shatt-al-Arab. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/08/wirq108.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/08/ixnewstop.html">But not for long, it would seem.

I still stand by this statement: when the British forces have extricated their units from the planned battlefield, that's when the Americans are gonna go into Iran.