Blair's which project

Much has been made of the positive influence that PM Tony Blair has had on
Pres. George Bush. Instead of being called "Bush's poodle," of late the
liberal media has reluctantly admitted that he played an important role in
persuading Bush to go thru the UN, and this allowed the French and their
allies to vote against the War in Iraq. This European attitude, that Blair
is basically OK, if a little misguided, while Bush is an outright war
criminal, is a very troubling distinction for many Americans.
The aim of this comment is to propose that Mr. Blair re-direct his
persuasiveness from the US direction towards that of the EU. In other
words, now that the original Iraq War is truly over, and we are in an
entirely different phase of the situation in Iraq, Blair should use his good
offices as an intermediary to prevail upon the EU members, and particularly
France, to drop their anti-American stance, and come around to Blair's way
of thinking.
What he said in his major speech at the Labor Party Convention today made
eminent sense. He apologized for the fact that the reasons used to justify
for the war were not valid, i.e. no WMD were actually found. But, he said
he would not apologize for the war itself and for the overthrow of Saddam
Hussein. At the time the war was undertaken he, like most of the world,
believed the intelligence that there was WMD in Iraq. He cannot be faulted
for this, nor for making the judgment that he did. But that is all water
under the bridge now.
The time has come for Blair, instead of pressuring Bush to moderate his
stance in relation to Iraq, to pressure Pres. Chirac of France to moderate
his knee-jerk anti-Americanism in relation to Iraq. In fact, this
anti-Americanism is a poor basis for EU policy, that is defined in a
negative rather than a positive way. Let the European nations look to their
interests. Do they want a rift with the US? Do they want to see Iraq fail?
Do they want to stand by while the insurgency in Iraq continues to kill many
people, mostly innocent Iraqis? Above all, are they prepared to do nothing
while the US is battling the nascent terrorist forces in Iraq? If the US
fails then one can say for sure that al Qaeda will use Iraq as a center, in
place of Afghanistan, from which to export their blend of terrorism around
the globe. So when the bombs start going off in Paris, we will know who to
blame. But, by then it may be too late.