As he prepares to leave power, Tony Blair understandably tries to focus on the one thing history will say he got right. We can argue over how well it is being fought, and whether we have chosen the right ground on which to fight it, but the so-called "war on terror" is a clear necessity.
Islamic terrorists have no political goals which could be accommodated. Nothing short of our destruction or surrender will satisfy them.
At this point in history, we can easily defeat them if we have the political and moral will. Blair - to his credit - knows that. Unlike the leftists in his Party and the bitter and envious governments of Western Europe, he also knows that without the leading nation of the West, there can be no victory.
I believe history will say that Osama bin Laden's attack on 9/11 was as great a blunder as the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor. The USA would have sat by stoically while the Caliphate was restored by infiltration in Europe. Why should Americans have intervened in the affairs of a continent riddled with anti-Americanism? Only 9/11 - or something very like it - could have awoken them. Given some historical distance, I think it will one day be seen that the victims did not die in vain,
Whenever one nation is seen as "too powerful", there are bound to be resentments. Kipling warned Americans of their destiny at the end of the 19th Century. Yet America does not throw her weight about like European imperialists of the past. Buy her goods and services and she will not even notice your politics. She has no imperial ambitions.
European resentment of the USA is jealousy, pure and simple. For the French, it is almost unbearable that one Anglo-Saxon superpower should have been succeeded by another. For the Germans, arguably the most civilised Europeans, it must be hard to see an uncultured consumer nation at the head of the Western World. But Blair is right. If they - and the strange alliance of British snobs, leftists and Muslims who hate America - cannot put those resentments behind them, we are lost.
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair condemns anti-US 'madness'
Thursday, September 14, 2006
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3 comments:
Excellent article.
Only comment I would make is that I'm not in agreement that Blair's policies do anything to help in TWOT. OK he did join forces with the US but was it for the right reasons which you imply? I don't think so. When you have so many 50/50 choices to make you get some right even if you are a total moron.
I am now coming around to the feeling that there are only a few ways to deal with these people. Sending them money and helping them build a society does not help us in the long run. In other cultures it is the right thing to do but this culture will use it against us. If we had not educated the Iranians and built their basic infrastructures they would be spending thier money on building infrastructure instead of enriched uranium.
Our cultures shortsightedness and niavity will be our downfall.
'but the so-called "war on terror" is a clear necessity.' I disagree; your error is in the definite article. A long fight against Islamic terrorists probably is a necessity, but the actual war we have is too poor a thing to earn assent. Just as Clinton was too much the coward to do his duty, W has proved too much the blunderer to do his properly. And Blair is a match for the pair of them. Duds all.
"Blair is a match for the pair of them"
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
Blair is weak as piss mate! He'd be off like a wippet if he got sussed on the street!
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