What's in It for Blair???

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Mar 12 22:26:10 PST 2003


At 10:13 AM +0800 3/12/03, kjkhoo at softhome.net wrote:
>Doug Henwood wrote:
>>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>
>>>What's in it for Blair???
>>
>>The chance to play imperialist, to get taken seriously by The Boss,
>>for the leader of a second-tier country to appear like a major
>>player on the world stage?
>
>Actually, he sounds like he's at least working out a part exit route
>-- the re-working of the proposed SC resolution. Caught a snippet on
>BBC today to the effect that they will be laying down the line,
>adding that it's the military pressure that's made SH behave these
>past few weeks.
>
>He's gone in too deep to jump ship now. But he's rattled.

Blair looks desperate, but he's snubbed left and right!

***** No Consensus Reached on British Proposal

Thursday March 13, 2003 3:40 AM

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - ...Britain, a key ally, proposed a ``to-do'' list for Saddam Hussein - six steps to avert war - in hopes of gaining votes for the resolution, which faces the threat of French and Russian vetoes. The British were expecting the United States and Spain to co-sponsor the proposal, but they didn't [:-i].

So Britain was left alone to present the plan to the Security Council. British diplomats are desperate to get U.N. approval for military action to avert a political uproar that threatens the career of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Council diplomats said Washington had some problems with the so-called benchmarks....

The bitterly divided council discussed the British proposal for 3 hours Wednesday evening without reaching any consensus, and agreed to meet again Thursday afternoon....

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2476236,00.html> *****

At 9:53 AM -0500 3/11/03, Jeet Heer wrote:
>"These Americans represent the new Roman Empire and we Britons, like
>the Greeks of old must teach them how to make it go," Tory Prime
>Minister Harold Macmillan once said. Like the Greeks of the previous
>century, Britons like Macmillan thought that their global position
>would be enhanced even as junior partners in a very large empire.
>
>To see yourself as an advisor to someone else's empire requires a
>curious combination of pride (in your own talents) and
>self-abnegation (in your national powers). On another occasion,
>Macmillan compared Britain to "the Greek slaves" who "ran the
>operations of the Empire Claudius."

It appears that at present Blair's service is unwanted, with his love going unrequited; the USG doesn't even co-sponsor the British proposal (see above), to say nothing of Rumsfeld's remark putting the poodle in the doghouse ("Letters: The Dark Age of Rumsfeld," <http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,912896,00.html>). Why would Blair not want to seize an opportunity provided by Rumsfeld, bring the British troops home, and save his political career?

Contrast between British servility and Gaullist ambition, as revealed by the content of M. de Villepin's briefcase, is fascinating:

***** New York Times March 8, 2003

Diplomacy at High Speed, Pour la France! By ELAINE SCIOLINO

ALGIERS - ...In the span of seven days in January, he [French Foreign Minister Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin] was in Ivory Coast on a Saturday negotiating with warring factions, in Russia on Wednesday preparing President Vladimir V. Putin's state visit to France and in China on Thursday and South Korea on Friday to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat. Altogether, in his first 10 months in the job, he has traveled to 70 countries, including this trip accompanying President Jacques Chirac on his first state visit to Algeria.

By far his biggest impact on the world scene has been to emerge as the most vocal and relentless critic of the Bush administration's march to war against Iraq. As the architect of the French-German-Russian initiative this week to stop the United States from passing a war resolution at the United Nations - unless international weapons inspections fail - what Mr. de Villepin says and does have taken on a level of importance unheard of in trans-Atlantic diplomacy....

If Mr. de Villepin has a vision, it is to revive the greatness of France - a romantic view he articulated in his book, "The Hundred Days," the first published volume of a biography of Napoleon that tells the story of the emperor's return from exile, his triumphant march across France and his final defeat at Waterloo.

Describing Napoleon's philosophy as "Victory or death, but glory whatever happens," Mr. de Villepin added, "There is not a day that goes by without me feeling the imperious need to remember so as not to yield in the face of indifference, laughter or gibes" in order to "advance further in the name of a French ambition."

Other clues to his thinking and temperament can be found in his black leather Gucci briefcase, which he opened up during the interview. Out came a thick dossier tied with a ribbon that contained the manuscript of the second volume of the Napoleon biography, a folder containing a collection of his poems that he is re-editing, the manuscript of a friend's book for which he is writing an introduction, a dossier on painting and, only then, his official papers on Algeria.

"You see, I like to do many things at the same time," he said. "That's the only way to stay awake. At three in the morning you need to do something different than at two in the morning, because if not, you fall asleep."

Just the day before, Mr. de Villepin said, he had written a poem for the national security adviser, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne. Asked to read a poem, Mr. de Villepin read three....

<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/08/international/europe/08FPRO.html> *****

The poetry business, I gather, may provide more fodders for French-bashing in the USA. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list