Dwayne Monroe wrote:
> During the run up to the US presidential election, on several occasions
> (at least
> two of which happened on Doug's show) Tariq Ali stated his belief that --
> well
> known problems with the opposition candidates aside -- it was important to
> defeat
> the architects of the Iraq war, *to prove it can be done* and to
> demonstrate a
> clear NO! to the idea of preemptive war and the almost insanely absurd
> lies used
> to justify it.
>
> We know how things turned out in the US.
>
> Now Mr. Blair faces an election. A lot of blood stained water has flowed
> under
> the bridge since he co-signed War Plan Iraq. If he wins an *unprecedented
> third
> term* what lessons should we draw about people's tolerance of BS (or
> estrangement
> from a cause and effect understanding of reality) in not one, but two of
> the
> major Western democracies?
-----------------------------
That, for most voters, foreign policy is remote from their immediate
concerns and difficult to judge critically, and domestic social and economic
issues, especially changes in living standards and the unemployment level,
matter more - unless there are hundreds of body bags regularly being shipped
back home, and there is a chance you or someone close to you might find
himself/herself in one of them.
MG