How Blair Lost by Winning

[Judi Lynn]

How Blair Lost by Winning
By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT

Published: October 8, 2003


BATH, England

On BBC radio the other morning, there was a poignant moment when the Pentagon adviser Kenneth Adelman was talking about the war in Iraq. "It bothers me that people in Britain don't see it as people in America see it," he said. "We did a beautiful thing."

He is quite right in supposing that most people here don't see that. The trans-Atlantic gulf has grown wider since the invasion of Iraq, regardless of what Prime Minister Tony Blair likes to think. And now, with Mr. Blair's popularity at an all-time low, his temporary political success on Iraq looks ever more like a self-inflicted wound.

As he said at his Labor Party conference last week, he is "more battered" — although also "stronger within" — than at any point of his six years in office. His hold on power is still tenacious, and reports of his political death are exaggerated, thanks not least to what remains an unelectable Tory Party. And yet his credibility had been badly damaged, with his approval ratings plummeting even before the weekend brought him more bad news.

First came the report from David Kay's Iraq Survey Group. Like the White House, Downing Street tries to pretend that Mr. Kay vindicated the decision for war. But while the report shows that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to make chemical and biological weapons, and would have liked atomic weapons as well (all of which we knew already), it also makes clear that he did not have any such weapons available last spring. (snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/opinion/08WHEA.html?th

[roguevalley]

1. I hope he suffers the fits of misery he deserves.

Especially after what happened to California. Ignominious misery and shame to all the liars in high places.

[T_i_B]

2. "to perish with their drawn salaries in their hands"

That seems to me to be the wish of "new" labour at the present time. They desire nothing more than power at any cost and to that end "new" labour has lost its purpose, it's principles and it's soul.

Sadly is seems to have gained little more than unlimited arrogance and a capacity to lie and dissemble first and ask questions later on the basis of Blair's current form.