Blair's Simple Stubborness

The Washington Dispatch ^ | April 4, 2003 | Cathryn Crawford

[Cathryn Crawford]

Blair’s Simple Stubbornness

Many people are asking, as this war enters it’s third week – where’s Tony Blair? He is gone from the televisions, replaced by the grainy night-vision images of troops and anti-aircraft fire. Now we carefully listen to Central Command briefings, instead of watching for Blair to set foot outside 10 Downing Street to assure us that Britain is still with us. He’s largely faded into the background, at least here in America.

Many people have wrongly compared Blair to Winston Churchill. Churchill was a man who suffered daily with his ‘black dog’, depression. He was a great wartime leader, always public and out front, but behind the scenes he fell victim to huffs and, at times, tantrums. However, he was a man who had the right temperament to lead a nation buckling under the weight of the blitzkrieg back from the edge of despair to victory.

Blair is of an altogether different temperament. He’s quieter, and, until about two years ago, seemed much, well, wimpier. He was a bit wishy-washy on domestic issues, and he wasn’t particularly outspoken on international ones. He was portrayed here in America as a sort of English Clinton, although with, perhaps, better family values.

Then came the day that changed the world. And, suddenly, he and every other world leader became our best friends. And by everybody, I mean everybody. Remember the press conference that Jacque Chirac had with Rudy Giuliani just a few days after 9/11? I remember quite clearly listening to Chirac’s voice, as it faded behind the interpreter, speaking French. Although my French is rudimentary, I could understand enough to hear him say that he and his country would stand by us through anything. You could see the tears on his face, real tears, as he expressed the sorrow and sympathy that he had for us. Cynic as I may be, at the time, it moved me. Now I think back and wonder how I could be such a sap.

Blair was not so emotional. He was simply quietly behind us. He pledged us any and all help that we needed, and he gave it to us when we asked for it.

Then came the next day that changed the world, September 12, 2002. On that day, President Bush stood before the U.N. General Assembly and told the world that the U.S. would not allow Saddam Hussein any more leeway to violate U.N. sanctions. And, lo and behold, when the other leaders who pledged us their undying love and support fell away, one man was still standing there, alone, but there – and that was Tony Blair.

He got heckled on the streets of London. His party split, some deciding to stay by the Prime Minister’s side, and some deciding to keep their hands out of the muck of war. His very administration split apart, and he endured public criticism every day from some of his former oldest and dearest friends. He was laughed at. He was jokingly referred to, both here and in the U.K., as Bush’s poodle. And still he stubbornly stood by us, refusing to cave to what must have been enormous pressure. He still said, in that quiet, passionate way of his, that Iraq was a threat, and that as the leader of a sovereign nation, it was his responsibility to the people of Britain to take care of it.

And, so, now that we are in the war that he did his best to avoid, yet never shrunk from, where is he? Is he hiding in fear of the media, as some say? I doubt it – it couldn’t get much worse than what he’s already been through.

He is doing what he has shown himself to be so proficient at in the last few years – taking care of business. He is not striving to make himself the hero of this war; on the contrary, he has given over that job to the generals running it. He hasn’t gone out of his way to be out front, flashing the victory sign and chomping on a cigar. Instead he is quietly sitting behind his desk, running Britain, reshaping his administration, and getting to all those domestic issues that have been simmering on the back burner for so many months. To put it simply - he is leading.

No matter whether you support this war or not, whether you like Bush and Blair or not, there is one thing that is simply unavoidable fact – Tony Blair is a man of his word. Like a marriage, for better or worse, in sickness or health, for richer or poorer – Blair has been by our side.

He has proven to the critics that he’s simple enough to believe in one truth, and stubborn enough to stick to his guns even when it hurts.

That’s what I call conviction.

[Owen]

I've been pleased with Tony Blair. Look in the dictionary next to the word resolve and you will find a picture of GW Bush. Look up stalwart, and there is Tony.

[ricpic]

We live in such an age of hype. Someone's a hero if they brave a snowstorm to get to work.
But when you look at what Blair has gotten through to get himself and his country to this moment; well, for once the word applies.
Let's not forget that he had to "stay the course" with a Labor Party at near mutiny and an approval rating from the British public that fell below 35% at one point. It's been one thing for our President to stand firm in the face of "the international community." He had a united party behind him and high approval ratings. But for Blair, the pressure to fold must have been immense.
Frankly, I didn't think he had it in him.
Truly, this is a case of the moment making the man, and the man making the moment.
Thank you, Mister Prime Minister.

[George W. Bush]

A nice portrait of Blair here, his steadfast friendship to America, a man who knows how to be an ally and who knows how to deal with us and with others diplomatically.

Blair has done more, somewhat unintentionally, to make Britain a world power than anyone since Churchill. Perhaps even more so if he played his cards right in the postware era. Who would have expected it?

[thegreatbeast]

I'm so sick and tired of people wanting, and trying, to cast movies with people they don't understand or know. GW Bush and Tony Blair are good men. That is rare enough nowadays, particularly in the political realm; count your blessings. Not even John Wayne was John Wayne he was Marian Somethingorother.
The wise know that God doesn't choose the qualified; God qualifies the chosen.

[CyberAnt]

Well ... Tony doesn't know it, but he's about to run into an immovable object.

[Stultis]

I've been pleased with Tony Blair.

You might not be so please if you were paying rates (taxes) in Britain. Tony's not bad for a Labour leader (he's a "third way" lib, like Clinton) but he's still Labour. Don't get me wrong, I give him all the credit in the world on the Iraq issue, but if I was a Brit I'd be voting conservative. Don't forget that Duncan Smith and the Conservatives have been solid on the war as well. They could have taken advantage of the situation to bring Blair down, but they didn't. They've opposed him where he's wrong (on domestic issues) and unhesitatingly supported him where he's right (on Iraq) with none of the odious political "positioning" our own Democratic Party has cynically engaged in.

[Stultis]

Ping!

[Reb Raider]

Would you be hinting at the U.N. battle to come on rebuilding contracts and setting up the interim Iraqi govt.? I guess the U.N. thought Pres.Bush was kidding when he talked to them about becoming irrelevant. Oh yes, there are interesting days ahead...

[Brian Allen]

<< I've been pleased with Tony Blair.


You might not be so please if you were paying tax in Britain. Tony's not bad for a Labour Party leader (he's a "third way" lib, like Clinton) but he's still [A totalitarian socialist!]

Don't get me wrong, I give him all the credit in the world on the Iraq issue, but if I was a Brit I'd be voting Conservative. Don't forget that Duncan Smith and the Conservatives have been solid on the war as well. They could have taken advantage of the situation to bring Blair down, but they didn't. They've opposed him where he's wrong [On domestic issues] and unhesitatingly supported him where he's right [On Iraq] with none of the odious political "positioning" our own Democratic Party has cynically engaged in. >>

Blair is a serially-lying, domestic-terrorist-appeasing, British-sovereignty-surrendering socialist monster who, despite having seemed to be a strong and decent man these past few months has simply been positioning himself and his execrable Labour Party thugs to further hasten once-great Britain's demise as he rushes it from the First World and deeper and irreversably into the EURO-peon Neo-Soviet. As that squalidly-socialist and abjectly-corrupt Frankensteinian bureaucracy's satellite state!

[George W. Bush]

Blair is a serially-lying, domestic-terrorist-appeasing, British-sovereignty-surrendering socialist monster who,...

He's still too fond of running to the U.N.; one can hope that Prez W. can help him see the error of that.

As to your other remarks, I would observe that Blair is a practical politician who may be rethinking the entire EU matter. Given his support among the non-Weasels in Old Europe and in all of New Europe, Blair may have recognized the impotence and futility of the EU as a military force (Kosovo before U.S. intervention) and he already opposes the new French federal EU constitution.

As much as any of us might like Winston Churchill today, his early political career was truly loopy and useless. We have to keep in mind that political leaders sometimes grow in office due to unavoidable events. Blair may have a change of heart, having seen that the EU stands for nothing and is powerless and that EU federalization is disadvantagous to British interests. The recent debacle at the U.N. may have opened his eyes somewhat.

We'll know if he's really learned something when we see if he tries to insist bringing in the U.N. and the Weasels on Iraqi reconstruction.

[Stultis]

he already opposes the new French federal EU constitution

This is the only advantage to having a Labour rather than Conservative government in Britain. The conservatives would also oppose the new constitution -- a blatant bid for Franco-German hegenomy -- but would have less credibility with continentals. Blair has a better chance of rallying and leading continental opposition to this monstrosity.

[Stultis]

Blair has a better chance of rallying and leading continental opposition to this monstrosity.

Which, I might add, is one of the reasons for the Frogs' attrocious behavior. They were hoping to bring Blair down. He would either be replaced by a Labour leader more compliant to Froggie machinations, or by a Conservative government that would tend to turn its back on the continent.

[Cathryn Crawford]

If I was English, I too would be voting Conservative; however, that doesn't keep me from appreciating what he's done for us in this current conflict.

[McGavin999]

Nice article on Blair, and he deserves it. His reward will be to go down in history as one of the best British leaders of all times.

Now, if we can just get him to change his mind about the role the UN takes after the war...........

[CyberAnt]

I can hardly wait - beats boring stuff any day.

And ... FOX has on the ticker - Germany and France DEMANDING to have a part of the reconstruction of France. Amazing!

[Brian Allen]

<< [Blair is] still too fond of running to the U.N.; one can hope that Prez W. can help him see the error of that.
..... I would observe that Blair is a practical politician who may be rethinking the entire EU matter..... and he already opposes the new French federal EU constitution.
..... We'll know if he's really learned something when we see if he tries to insist bringing in the U.N. and the Weasels on Iraqi reconstruction. >>

Thoughtful response. We will indeed see.

And my money is that his lunatic-left-wing-fringer's lust for power [The noxious weed that florishes in the vacant lots of empty minds. Like Blair's] will overcome the temporary aberration that has been the cause of his out-of-"character" behavior during the past couple of years.

President Bush, having already, in order to accomodate Blair's gaggle of hats and left-winger's propensity and/or tendency to be all things to all forums [And notwithstanding that a large part of the first twelve months or so of delays were caused by the Cli'ton "administration's" armaments and other military derelections and depletions] stayed Our Nation's Hand way too often during the Post September 11 2001 Era, the last six months at the risk of disaster to America's and Australia's Military Forces -- and knows it.

It has been very refreshing to observe that since we invaded Iraqi -- and particularly at their most recent Camp David meeting -- America's President and Armed Forces Commander In Chief made no bones of spurning all of Blair's usual manipulative importuning that his multi-hattedness [Especially insofar as his various British Labour Party/EU/UN/NATO slights of hand and other shuckin' and jivin' are concerned] be further accommodated.

Blair now has three choices. He may quit politics and get a job. He may quit the Labour Party and begin the long climb up the Tories ladder -- and maybe ever make it past back-bencher.

Or he may continue to be the kind of Labour Party creature whose career depends upon his ongoing willingness to continue to lie to those to stupid to know they are being lied to and/or are to lazy and greedy to care. Doing that will warm his Hitlery-Clinton-esque Marxist wife's cockles and will offer him some kind of ongoing political continuity while he simultaneously plays different versions of socialism's three card monte and simultaneously "guarantees" different outcomes to different audiences in every EUROpeon circus tent.

As I already said, my money [But not my prayers] is on his subduing the aberration that has steered his past few months' behavior, reverting to type -- and doing the latter.

Best ones -- Brian

[Brian Allen]

<< If I was English, I too would be voting Conservative; >>

Not me!

If my ancestors had not long ago already emigrated from that sorry failing socialist state I would emigrate!

For, just as there is no Declaration of Independence, ther is no Constitution, there is no Bill of Rights and there exists no Principle of Individual Liberty [And "Britain" is pretty much what Blair and or any of Britain's effective elected dictators says it is or can force it to be!] there are no Conservatives in England -- and never have been.

The position occupied in the political spectrum by the creature the British call a "conservative" is so far to left of that held by a left-wing American "DemocRAT" as to be incomparable even with one of those!

British "Conservative" Party policies are aimed only at getting control of that increasingly-squalid socialist state's power over all of its "subjects" and of every means of creation, innovation, production, manufacture, transportation,and sale -- and of the "redistribution" [By way, for example of the abjectly failed "national health service"]and other squanderings of the confiscated wealth of the few remaining British creators, innovators, producers, manufacturers and other workers.

<< .... and however, that doesn't keep me from appreciating what he's done for us in this current conflict. >>

Or to US?

The show continues and [Although President Bush has recently, thank God, rebuffed most of his more recent attempts at importuning further collectivist panderings] we have yet to see the end of Blair's three-card-monte-like répertoire.

Best ones -- Brian

[George W. Bush]

And my money is that his lunatic-left-wing-fringer's lust for power [The noxious weed that florishes in the vacant lots of empty minds. Like Blair's] will overcome the temporary aberration that has been the cause of his out-of-"character" behavior during the past couple of years.

Yeah, I think he'll choose Door #3 too. I was just kind of hoping he'd be sensible and learn something from the whole Kosovo/Iraq EU/U.N. fiascos he's been involved in.

[Brian Allen]

As his intellectual and moral twin, Made Girlyboy, Alberto Goreleone, once observed: "A leopard does not change its stripes!"