I do think Tony is going ’round the bend quickly. He sounds like he’s trying to spout two lines at the same time: one to mollify the raving herd at home, and the other to stay in lock step with shrub; like shitting and puking at the same time — can’t be fun. Obviously he’s going to be joined at the hip with shrub in history. Not a great deal I’d say unless you just like notoriety.
The part of his ramblings I really caught was that this was a struggle to show that our Western thought can “beat” their (the “extremists”) thought. (I can’t find the exact quote now) Could have been shrub speaking. Ignoring the house burning down around him he insists but, but, if they only understood how good we are:
Mr Blair called for a “complete renaissance” of strategy to defeat international terrorism, suggesting a significant shift in emphasis from military force to the “soft power” of trade agreements and aid. He said: “‘To defeat [terrorism] we need an alliance of moderation that paints a different future in which Muslim, Jew and Christian, Arab and Western, wealthy and developing nations can make progress towards peace and harmony with each other. My argument is that we won’t tackle the cause of this global extremism unless we win it on the level of values as much as force; unless we show that we are even handed, fair and just”.(the Independent)
If I didn’t know better I’d think Blair thinks he’s misunderestimated.
Anyway, its not playing very well at home of course.
I won’t be surprise to see a vote of no confidence in the Commons over this last straw, no pun. They might have to drag a Tony raving off to the Tower in irons, because he’s not going quietly.
A nice bon bon that, but I’d rather he had a set of rocks, several years ago.

Posted by: DonS | Aug 2 2006 11:50 utc | 4

The thing about Blair is a lot of people believe he’s changed since Bush came into office, that before he was some sort of aimiable social democrat.
But he really seems much more like a soft authoritarian than a democrat of any sort. He has made Britain into one of the most surveilled societies in the world, promulgated laws to criminalize ‘anti-social behavior’, and reduced the role of parliament (and even his own party) to a bare minimum. Unlike Bush, it’s difficult to tell who he’s even trying to pander to, aside from a small fringe of neo-con-like Tories. He’s the quintessential neo-lib… As is Friedman.
Unlike Bush though, he could actually wind up on trial at the Hague… Here’s hoping!

Posted by: Faux Facsimile | Aug 2 2006 14:02 utc | 6

Blair said the war in the Middle East was in part a fight between “reactionary Islam and moderate mainstream Islam” and that Western intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan had turned into “existential battles for reactionary Islam.”
In other words, we are justified in killing others, as a proxy force for “moderate mainstream islam,” for their reactionary beliefs.
Kill others for their beliefs! Now, that’s a liberal idea I think I could line up behind.
Great!
Not only is he admitting that we are committing war crimes, he is attempting to reduce us to the lumbering Luca Brasi for “moderate mainstream Islam.”
Bliar: Ethicist and Logician cum laude.
History should remember him well; that is, if we still have history when he is done.
I always think of that scene in the Exorcist, and wonder how many times a head can be made to spin around. Sometimes mine never stops spinning.
On a more serious note, I’m quite afraid that they have suceeded in their plan of getting so intwined in a lose/lose situation, that there is no option for the moneyed classes but to dig in deeper. That is the sense in which the neo-cons have pulled off an unparralleled coup of world government. Breathtaking in scope, ambition, and, most notably, narrowness of interest.
Rest, rest, poor Luca. Western Civilization calls out to you; asking, begging, imploring, if we may join you down below. From this mighty aerie of morals and logic, this unassailable fortress of rectitude, it sometimes gets lonely, and then, at those times of silence and question, it looks so comforting to sleep with the fishes. To sleep with the fishes. We will join you soon.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 2 2006 14:41 utc | 8

Blair, as a poodle, has no position, analysis or strategy of his own. He has to repeat, with heartfelt sincerity, the message of the master. As the master’s message is constructed for the US and not GB he is edging close to disourse that if produced by an ordinary individual in the EU would get you locked up, pronto.
Blair is grasping, domineering, vain, and more I’d better not write – his wife is the same. He excuses himself through grandiose ideas of personal superiority and no doubt justifies that, and his stances and policies, by a mission to save GB, which he sees as sinking into the sea if nothing is done. It is a miscalculation – geography can bite you on the ass, being a US ally is not feasible on the map – he prefers to ignore it for personal glory and money.
Neo-lib supreme, second capo in the Mafia of International Gangster Capitalism, he sees clinking gold chains, Berlusconi’s yacht, servants scurrying, all that stuff, and little people starving, oh how horrible.

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 2 2006 16:05 utc | 10

CounterPunch
“”It’s the grandmother,” one of the onlookers gasped when the civil defense bulldozer finally pierced a hole in the rubble of what was until two weeks ago a three-storey house.
Mrs Jabr’s corpse presented a terrible dilemma to the Lebanese Red Cross yesterday. Should they cut her in two, put the pieces in a body bag and take her to the hospital morgue, or leave her behind, in the hope that more powerful equipment could lift the concrete slab from her back and would reach her before the dogs did?”

Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 2 2006 19:55 utc | 12

Noirette, at this stage Blair is focused on his directorships and the US lecture circuit. Fuck the rest of the world and the unbelievers and little people he is currently surrounded by.

Posted by: Colman | Aug 2 2006 21:15 utc | 14

Yes, that’s right, Colman. Frank Carlucci awaits him.

Posted by: gylangirl | Aug 4 2006 1:02 utc | 16