Thanks so much for that informative post, Mesta.
I totally missed the Iran/Britain conflict in the Iraq war. I wonder if you would share with me the sources of your reading for learning of these undercurrent issues and events in foreign relations and policy. I really am not happy that I totally missed the underbelly of Bush’s issues with Blair during the Iraq war.
It never made any sense to me that a leftist labor leader from Britian would be so submissive to Bush. Now I know it made no sense and was, in fact, not even real!
What I can tell you is that blair had been secretly meeting with bill clinton both before and after the invasion of iraq. He met with clinton not even an hour after a top secret meeting with world leaders at bush’s ranch in Texas. They met in a hotel where clinton was staying.
He also met with clinton after the top secret meeting held in the Azores which was held there so NO information would be leaked.
Bush was also in touch with clinton. No one realizes how much bill clinton had to do with many things behind the scenes after he left office...including iraq.
This is speculation on my part now, but I think that clinton, with bush’s knowledge, appealed to britain’s greed for oil, and held up Um Qasr as a “bribe” to blair to support the war in iraq...and that he convinced blair that either bush knew about the deal, or that bush would aquiesce once it appeared to be a done deal. And blair fell for it. Um Qasr, to the victor go the spoils. But bush never had any intention of aquiescing. clinton knew it. blair didn’t.
And so blair supported the war vigorously, convinced other leaders to support the war, believing britain would control Um Qasr, the only major oil exporting port in iraq.
clinton is the king of flim flam, and it would not be the first time he hoodwinked world leaders to get his way.