Carter has a go at Blair

[Dogberry]

Undoubtedly Blair will be remembered only for Iraq. Not what he would have wanted

Carter attacks Blair's Iraq role

Jimmy Carter has won a Nobel Prize for his charitable work


Carter on Blair
Former US President Jimmy Carter has criticised outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his "blind" support of the war in Iraq.
Mr Carter told the BBC Mr Blair's backing for US President George W Bush had been "apparently subservient".

He said the UK's "almost undeviating" support for "the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq had been a major tragedy for the world".

His comments came as Mr Blair paid what is likely to be his last visit to Iraq.

He flew into the capital, Baghdad, for talks with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki at which he is expected to push for greater reconciliation between Iraq's Sunni and Shia factions.

Mr Blair is due to leave office at the end of next month.

'Global schisms'

Mr Carter said that if Mr Blair had distanced himself from the Bush administration's policy during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq it might have made a crucial difference to American political and public opinion.

"One of the defences of the Bush administration... has been, okay, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us," he told the Today programme on Radio 4.

"So I think the combination of Bush and Blair giving their support to this tragedy in Iraq has strengthened the effort and has made the opposition less effective and prolonged the war and increased the tragedy that has resulted."

The war had "caused deep schisms on a global basis", he said, and he hoped Mr Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, would be less enthusiastic in his support for it.

The former US president has been a fierce critic of the US-led war in Iraq.

In an interview last year, he said he was "disappointed" by Tony Blair's failure to use his influence with President Bush more wisely.

In 1976, Mr Carter unseated the incumbent Gerald Ford to become the 39th US president, serving until 1981.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, for what presenters cited as decades of work seeking peaceful solutions and promoting social and economic justice.

[fat mike]

carter's a dork and if he thinks anyone could convince georgie to do anything he didnt want to do he's sadly mistaken.carter's party didnt resist gw's will either so carter go back to building houses and leave politics to the grown ups

[Dogberry]

Originally Posted by fat mike

carter's a dork and if he thinks anyone could convince georgie to do anything he didnt want to do he's sadly mistaken.carter's party didnt resist gw's will either so carter go back to building houses and leave politics to the grown ups

He is saying that Blair's support helped, which it did, whether it made a crucial difference to US opnion I couldnt say.

[fat mike]

Blaire might have added some credibility-i'll grant you but the country was in a "9/11" mood and was going to go rain or shine...

[Kaliayev]

But what effect would have British scepticism had on the UN? Not to mention the Eastern European NATO allies who look far more to Britain and America than the rest of Europe on big issues like this?

I think America was always going to go in as well, but we cannot know that for certain.

Either way, I'm sympathetic to what Carter says, mainly because I'm pretty tired of living in a country where foreign leaders call the shots on our policy making.

[fat mike]

the question i got for you guys is how influential was Blair even in bringing Britain into the conflict? Wasnt there already popular support for the idea there?

[Kaliayev]

Originally Posted by fat mike

the question i got for you guys is how influential was Blair even in bringing Britain into the conflict? Wasnt there already popular support for the idea there?

Blair was influential in getting Parliament to authorize the war. His advisors in particular were influential in spinning and distorting claims about Iraq's capabilities to the press, as well, which filtered back into Commons debates, as these things tend to. The Hutton and Butler reports are quite revealing in this, despite being a whitewash in their ultimate conclusions.

The population was more against the war than for it, despite the drum-beating of Murdoch's rags. To give you an idea, its widely considered that the 15th of Feb protest in London was the largest ever seen in the city. While the official political elite and media were more keen on the idea, the average person in the street could tell America was spoiling for a fight and, if they wanted it so bad, they should do it themselves and not drag us into it,.

[Dogberry]

Originally Posted by fat mike

the question i got for you guys is how influential was Blair even in bringing Britain into the conflict? Wasnt there already popular support for the idea there?

There was and is little support for the war.

What support there was relied on the lie that he had WMD's and was preparing to use them.

[zipper99]

Chairman Tony had his moment when he claimed that Saddam had WMD's and could launch them to strike London "within 45 minutes".

All complete BS and it's clear from the "Downing Street Memo" and other documents that it was his spin machine that cooked up this crock to frighten Brits into swallowing the other lies.