George's big mistake was to listen to Tony

dailytelegraph.co.uk ^ | 16/03/2003 | Anne Applebaum

[Destro]

No more pep rallies, no more self delsions. We are Republicans and thus realists. The Bush administrations diplomatic efforts on gaining U.N. support (i.e. a U.N. fig leaf for war) have been a failure. That's what Bush gets for listening to a socialist sc*m like Blair who has ruined England, helped ruin the Balkans and now has ruined us.

[whadizit]

He may be a socialist, but he is certainly brave, a brave socialist. There are very few of them, for sure.

Getting 1441 was a pretty good move, but everything thereafter was totally unnecessary. I heard that Powell had convinced GW that he could get the votes for the 2nd resolution. So, I do not think I would point my middle finger at Blair.

[Pukka Puck]

Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld were right and Powell was wrong.

[Jim Robinson]

Bush is not the guy making the mistakes. Saddam made a huge miscalculation. France (and the UN) made a bizarre decision, turning their backs on the U.S. to back terrorism. Screw France. Screw the UN. The bombing starts in five days. The UN is hereby and forthwith totally irrelevant. God Bless America!

[Democratshavenobrains]

If any good has come from this pointless UN exercise, it has shown the American public and alot of the world how useless the UN is and especially how much Germany and France show no graditude for all that we have done for them.

[tomahawk]

Amen.

[Consort]

No mistake, just a protracted schedule. In the meantime, the Democrats, the UN, France, Germany, the Dixie Chicks....showed their true colors for all to see. They will lose along with Saddam.

[america-rules]

What's wrong with going to the UN?

The Foxnews poll yesterday said that 71% of Americans are now in favor of taking iraq out now when it was less than 50% three months ago.

A point was proven that the UN is Usless !

[Destro]

Brave socialism is the worst kind of foolhardiness. Blair fooled lots of Americans into calling his pinko socialist ass "Churchillian" which I am sure made that great Torie spin in his grave.

[Conservababe]

As my southern grandmother used to say "sometimes you just have to cull your friends". LOL

[Hugin]

You sure are gloomy, and disrespectful to an ally who has put his own career on the line to back us up. Blair may be a socialist, but he's been true to his word. In no way re we "ruined". If anything this BS with the UN, frustrating as it is, has served the purpose of conivincing the American people just how worthless that institution is. A few weeks ago the majority of Americans did not support going to war without UN approval. Now 71% of them do, and 80% say the US not the UN should decide the issue. So in that way Blair may have done us a favor.

In any case, we are going in a few days, and in the end the delay won't have changed the result. Saddam will be gone, and we will occupy Bagdhad.

[Mark Hamilton]

Bushs real mistake was in listening to Colin Powell and the state department. They proffered the absurd advice that the US should depend on the UN for legitimization of our foriegn policy.

After the war is over, I hope Bush sacks Powell. Then the President should get a Secretary of State with more backbone.

[WestTexasWend]

Amen...it was Colin, not Tony, who lead us down this road AGAIN.

[Mark Hamilton]

The debacle at the UN may have helped Bush, but also note that it has damaged Blair. Blair has been losing ground since 1441's deadline.

No doubt he is a brave man, but the effort to help him may, in fact, destroy him. In a few days, we will know.

[MJY1288]

As much as I would like to find a scapegoat for the current situation that has us trying to gain the support of the U.N. to enforce resolutions that the U.N. created to begin with, I can't.......Tony Blair could have taken the path of least resistance and followed the opinion Polls and buried his head in the sand, much like the Chiraq and Schroeder did after Resolution 1441 was ignored by Saddam.

My hat is off to Tony Blair for taking a principled stand, and I appreciate the fact that George W. Bush was willing to spend political capitol on Tony Blair and others as he agreed to try and get another reolution that sanctioned War against Saddam if he didn't disarm.

The way I see this ending up .... is that at the end of the day we will find the WMD's and the torture chambers and everything else Saddam said he didn't have, and those who threatened to veto the resolution that would help Tony Blair and others will have egg all over their faces.

Tony Blair might be from the liberal Labour Party, But he has more "Chalupa's" than any liberal Democrat in this country and I say we could use a few people like Blair among the useless liberals we have in this country.

I would trade Lincoln Chafee, John McCain or a host of other leftist republicans for Tony Blair any day of the week

[Destro]

I have no allies amongst socialists. Blair did what he did for his own reasons and he screwed all up. We are fooling ourselves if we think otherwise.

And your right I have nothing but disprespect for Blair and his Labour party.

[Destro]

and Rumsfeld too and Wolfowitz.

[CommandoFrank]

My friend, you have said it all......

[Torie]

I don't think the stakes are quite so high as the author suggests. Every situation is different, and the underlying power of the various nations, and their various interests, are a constant. Neither outcome the author suggests is likely to obtain. It will be much messier than that, because people are messy, and thus the planet.

[Dane]

If any good has come from this pointless UN exercise, it has shown the American public and alot of the world how useless the UN is and especially how much Germany and France show no graditude for all that we have done for them.

I agree. The UN chirades were shown twice on TV every network at least in my metropolitan area. ABC, CBS, and NBC probabaly thought by showing the UN meetings it would turn public opinion against Bush, but what it did was show the bloviating arrogance and appeasment by the French and Germans.