By Donald Kaul
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, fading like a sad smile, made his farewell appearance at George Bush’s White House last week. Even as he and The Decider were having their final tête-à-tête (one head of state to another), Blair’s Labor Party was choosing his successor.
The star-crossed couple, wallowing deep in the trough of public opinion, was full of praise for each other in a joint Rose Garden appearance. And, indeed, they made a lovely pair--reminiscent of Damon and Pythias, Laurel and Hardy, Bonnie and Clyde.
No, wait. They were more like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Remember the final scene of that movie, when Butch and Sundance (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) are pinned down in a building by a squad of federales?
They decide to shoot their way out, unaware that in the meantime a small army of soldiers has joined the squad. As the outlaws sprint out into the sunlight, guns blazing, the camera freezes. That’s the way the film ends, with Butch and Sundance in freeze-frame, dashing to certain doom.
Which is pretty much where George and Tony are. Dead men walking. Blair has been thrown out of office and branded by Brits as Bush’s poodle. President Bush’s approval ratings are lower than Paris Hilton’s.
But the two leaders continue to be a comfort to each other. Bush told of sitting with Blair on the Truman balcony, talking over old times. Failing presidents love the Truman balcony, named after that patron saint of despised politicians, Harry Truman. It reminds them that one can leave office in disgrace, yet have one’s reputation redeemed by history.
It’s obvious that they expect just that. In response to a series of tough questions at the press conference, Blair said:
“We took a decision that we thought was very difficult. I thought then and I think now, it was the right decision. History will make a judgment at a particular time.
“But one thing I know is that what we represent coming here today, speaking in the Rose Garden, to you people and getting your questions and being under your pressure … that is a finer and better way of life than either a brutal, secular dictatorship or religious extremism.”
Yeah, Tony, but isn’t that setting the bar a little low? Maybe there’s a Third Way.
The thing about this war that its dwindling band of supporters refuses to admit is that it was unnecessary to the war on terror.
We went into Afghanistan because al Qaida--the terrorist organization that gave us the bombers of the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon--was there. And before we got that job finished and knocked off Osama bin Laden, we diverted our attention to Iraq--where al Qaida was not.
Saddam Hussein, brute that he was, was keeping al Qaida out of his country because he was afraid it would subvert his despotic regime. When we got rid of Saddam, al Qaida moved in, much to our misfortune.
So what has our war done for us? It has opened Iraq to al Qaida, made our archenemy Iran stronger and weakened our strongest Arab ally, Saudi Arabia. We are virtual pariahs in the region.
If you’re going to fight terror, you should at least do it in a way that reduces terror, not inspires it.
I know, we are trying to bring democracy to the Middle East. Great. Woodrow Wilson would be very proud.
But the secret that no one wants to talk about is that majority rule in the Middle East is the last thing we should be seeking.
The people there hate us; they want us out of their homelands. In addition, they lack a real concept of minority rights, and without minority rights democracy is just another form of tyranny. If you don’t believe me, ask the Founding Fathers.
Still, I shall miss Blair. He had a nice way with a phrase. Too bad he fell in with bad company.
Don Kaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he's wrong. Email: dkaul1@verizon.net.
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