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Is Tony Blair as naive as he appears? It's a liability, first with his insistence on prolonging the farce at the UN, then on his recent remarks suggesting we "mend fences" with Europe when it's up to the likes of the French and Germans to mend their fences with us, and now with this delusion that our Arab enemies can be converted to our side once they know the truth. They already know the truth - they don't care because their only motivation is their hatred of the West. The way to "rebut" them is to kill the SOB's, destroy their Nazi regimes, and convince their people that it's a very bad idea to attack Americans and British, ever again.

Blair is a liberal and knows how liberals and conservatives think. The issues he presses are necessary to balance the diplomatic community with reality. He thinks too well on his feet for me to think he is not in tune with reality.

In my experience we always have at least two fronts, the diplomatic and the real. I always focused on the real, being a technical person, but left room to communicate with the politicos, knowing that what appeared wasted effort was necessary to sate the powerful who make decisions that make no sense but impact millions of people. The politicos like to claim primary impact, so I let them, but have learned to communicate with some in a way to influence things a little more to the real.

Taking a hard right position sometimes eliminates your influence, but compromising has to be handled carefully so that we can achieve what is really important.

Basically, if we present the truth, it arms the liars with more to counter, but at least we present it so that some few who will look hard at congruency and reality have the opportunity to know. That can grow small pockets that can grow in number and depth of understanding. Acting on truth always puts one in the minority, often hated by all, but I will always contend to put it out there, still believing that I am not totally alone.