Tony Blair Goes Wobbly on Us [Lileks]

Newhouse News ^ | 11/15/2006 | James Lileks

[Incorrigible]

Tony Blair Goes Wobbly on Us

BY JAMES LILEKS

Surely the Democratic victories brought long faces to the terrorist schemers: If the United States bolts out of Iraq as quickly as now seems possible, al-Qaida will be left without a plan for the occupation. They'd anticipated taking power in '08, after a protracted leeching of American resolve -- but now?

Al-Qaida lacks the boots on the ground to perform the nationwide slaughter required to sunder a nascent democracy. It's one thing to ask your patrons for more bullets; it's quite another to request overnight delivery of the backhoes for mass graves. Must not show lack of foresight.

Heads will roll! More than usual, anyway.

Then again, disaster may not befall Iraq. It may suffer more of the targeted, telegenic chaos that makes for dandy CNN reports, but the nation might still be stabilized -- if we reach out to new partners. And if you believe Tony Blair, those brand new pals would be Syria and Iran.

Yes, Blair's gone wobbly. Some sort of political bird flu has killed all the hawks and replaced them with creatures that mill around civilized capitals making cooing noises and fleeing in panic when someone toots a car horn.

Said the PM: "A major part of the answer to Iraq lies not in Iraq itself but outside it, in the whole of the region where the same forces are at work and where the roots of this global terrorism are to be found."

He has a point, but one might suggest that waging proxy war on the U.S. and the Iraqi government ought instead to be rewarded with a few Tomahawks in the summer homes of senior mullahs.

That, however, is the history of this war -- half-measures, squandered momentum. One side carefully calibrates how much psychological distress may be exacted in interrogations, and the other calibrates the centrifuges that will make the nuclear bombs.

One small problem for Blair: Iran, according to the Telegraph newspaper, is actively involved in selecting the next batch of al-Qaida leaders. Put that together with another revelation from Britain: Al-Q is intensifying its efforts to assemble nuclear material -- 2005 alone saw 16 thwarted attempts to smuggle plutonium and uranium, and we may presume the terrorists tried more than 16 times.

Negotiating with these cheery lads would be like sitting down with the Mafia to discuss the future of trash hauling, except that Tony Soprano doesn't peel off banknotes to fund suicide bombers. Tony wants to live. Our enemies think the Bada-Bing is in heaven.

Blair put his finger on something, though. Where should all the healing begin? Why, in the locus of all injustice, of course: "We should start with Israel/Palestine. That is the core."

The persistence of this delusion -- that the capitulation of Israel will end the problem -- cannot be explained. Somehow decent and rational people believe that indecent and irrational men will agree to forgo their hatreds for the mundane work of building a civil society.

Blair continued: "We should then make progress on Lebanon."

We should indeed. We should also cure cancer and invent cold-fusion hovercars and petition McDonald's to make Shamrock Shakes all year 'round; that doesn't mean any of it's likely.

This doesn't mean you can't talk. Behind-the-scenes chats with the mullahs to spell out consequences and requirements would be fine. But coming cap-in-hand looks weak, and the Iranians may well think that if you've doffed your hat, you won't need your head. Allow us to help you with that.

Future historians will be baffled: "They said they were going to destroy you; why didn't you do anything?"

Well, there was this politician who sent some naughty e-mails, and that seemed terribly important at the time. Some sixth-century Romans would probably understand; the rock in the sandal can be so vexatious, you forget all about the hordes massing on the plain.

But it's still dispiriting to see Blair wobble with such vigor. What's the saying? As the Anglosphere goes, so goes the Anglosphere.

Paging John Howard of Australia; Mr. Howard to the courtesy phone.

Nov. 15, 2006

(James Lileks can be contacted at newhouse@lileks.com)

Not for commercial use.  For educational and discussion purposes only.

[Incorrigible]

The people who voted for Democrats in the US were already "wobbly".

 

Related threads:

Blair Urges U.S. to Seek Help From Syria and Iran

BLAIR: 'No softening' on Iran and Syria

Blair wants Iran to aid Mideast peace

Blair - we must work with 'Axis of Evil' states

Bush rebuffs Blair on peace role for Iran

 

[Incorrigible]

Lileks Bump.

[Canard]

Blair hasn't 'gone' anywhere. This has always been his position.

[Incorrigible]

I agree.

It is the American voter that has gone wobbly.

[Constitution Day]

The Bleat
Screedblog

---

Lileks Ping!
If you'd like to be added or removed, just drop me a line...

[AnnaZ]

Absolutely one of his best. Thanks much for the ping.

[Tolik]

Future historians will be baffled: ‘They said they were going to destroy you; why didn't you do anything?’

Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately  on  my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.  

[Brian Allen]

<< Blair hasn't 'gone' anywhere. This has always been his position. >>

Absolutely.

The craven serial appeaser, moral relativist and pathological antisemite, Tiny Blair, represents his electorate almost as well as did he who best-ever represented it, Neville Chamberlain.

Mr Chamberlain least one forget, also ignored the plight of Jews, made "deals" with mass-murdering tyrants and sent a poorly-armed and ill-equipped token force to war.

[juliej]

the Brits have always been anti-Semitic. So have the French, but let's not forget about the Brits - and hypocrites to boot - they are being destroyed within by the Moslem population while the BBC incites violence against Jews and Israelis.

[Canard]

Oh good, here come all the anti-British trolls.

[Brian Allen]

<< Oh good, here come all the anti-British trolls. >>

Oh bad, here comes all of the boozed-up bovver-booted bigoted bully-boy british hate-speech spewers and masters of the personal attack to supercilliously and sanctimoniously demonstrate their superiority in the most inferior manner imaginable.

On these American Boards.

Go figger.

[Canard]

Way to prove my point. I'm outta here.

[Brian Allen]

<< the Brits have always been anti-Semitic. So have the French, but let's not forget about the Brits - and hypocrites to boot - they are being destroyed within by the Moslem population while the BBC incites violence against Jews and Israelis. >>

Be careful when dealing with the once-great-now-groveling brits.

They prefer their own delusionally fantasized view of things and react quite viciously and gang up and get bitchy when presented without warning with any of with Objectivity, History, Truth and/or Veracity.

Duck!

[Brian Allen]

<< I'm outta here. >>

Don't let our boards' doors hit you in the arse as you leave.

[RightWhale]

the American voter that has gone wobbly

Note: Anything that takes more than four years will be in built-in trouble in this Federal system. Two years--okay, four years--questionable, six years--lame, eight years--forget it.

[juliej]

I am not anti-British - but the Brits have become increasing leftwing: George Galloway, Red Ken Livingston, some wacko members of parliament, the BBC, etc.

[ellery]

If W. hadn't gone wobbly, the American majority may not have, either. Why did he hamstring Rummy? Why did he give the primary responsibility for Iraq to State and the UN? How many times in the past year has he warned Iran and Syria of grave consequences if they didn't stop sending terrorists and arms over Iraq's borders? How many times did these "grave consequences" turn out to be just another empty warning?

Somewhere along the line, we went on the defense, when we should have stayed on the offense. I've been a huge supporter of the effort to drain the middle east swamp, but it can't be done half-way. I'm afraid that W. is too much like his father and not enough like his mother.

[Stultis]

Iran, according to the Telegraph newspaper, is actively involved in selecting the next batch of al-Qaida leaders.

Obviously that can't be. I have the absolute assurance of lib/left/dimocrat foreign policy experts from Joe Biden to Barbra Streisand that Shia like the Iranians can never work and coordinate with Sunnis like al-Qaida. Even though every intelligence agency on the globe seems to believe that Iran is funding BOTH sides (Shia and Sunni) in Iraq, this has to be wrong. Even though they've funded Sunni terrorists, even in places like Saudi Arabia where they kill and oppress Shia, for years and years previously, which also MUST be false.

We best listen to our Dhimmocratic betters and NOT allow ourselves to be unduly influenced by the facts.

[Stultis]

If W. hadn't gone wobbly

Sadly, I agree. The worst is it's too damn late now. Fact is we couldn't have afforded full scale war with Iran and Syria, but we should have established the precedent of conducting cross border raids, bombing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases, and maybe even some leadership targets, etc, while we still had sovereignty over Iraq. Now the Iraqi government would certainly veto any American missions conducted from their territory.

We're stuck with a, still I think winnable but damn costly, Iranian proxy war in Iraq which costs the Iranians themselves very little. The solution would be a separate, sub military regime change initiative directed against Iran along the lines of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, but of course that's impossible with Dims controlling Congress, and in any case too weak without bringing to heel the forces in the CIA and State Department that subverted the Iraq Liberation Act and would do the same to any similar effort against Iran.

Bush should have done more when he still had the power and initiative to act, but let's not forget on the other hand the PRIMARY responsibility for limiting such actions and escalating their costs prohibitively falls not on Bush but rather on the "enemy within": feckless, appeasement minded liberals and openly seditious leftists.

[Kenny Bunk]

Blair used GW.

Before 9/11, Blair was on the skids. He then hugged Bush so tightly, one would think they were joined at the hip. Made everyone forget that Tony was Clinton's butt boy ... and that in fact, Clinton sent a team of his slicksters to Britain to get this Blair elected in the first place!

The WOT and George Bush gave Blair 8 more years in power. It didn't make him any less of a Left wing nut job that a healthy Margaret Thatcher couldn't have arm-wrestled into a richly deserved oblivion.