The Dynamic Duo
BARNES, FRED
The Dynamic Duo Is there trouble ahead for this beautiful friendship? BY FRED BARNES IN THE DAYS before the British Parliament voted on a resolution endorsing war with Iraq, Prime Minister Tony...
...We've learned he's a man of courage, that he's a man of vision, and we're proud to have him as a friend...
...But deliberations on this are "best done" privately...
...The Iraqis don't need someone running the country for them," the official added...
...And the prime minister argued he needed a second U.N...
...And he has more amicable relations with Kofi Annan...
...During the speech, Blair sat in the House of Representatives balcony next to Laura Bush, then flew back to London after only a few hours in Washington...
...That's quite a list of concessions by Bush, and there's more...
...Bush feels indebted to Blair and he's shown it...
...After all, the U.N., E.U., and the Russians have been unwilling to impose accountability on Saddam...
...Their most visible difference is over Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat...
...The summit itself was as much Bush's idea as Blair's...
...It doesn't make sense for an organization opposed to the war in Iraq to control the people and the country that the war liberated...
...With Bush, Blair was assured the special relationship between America and Great Britain was on firm and predictable ground...
...Blair, again partly for political relief at home, insisted on new arms inspections in Iraq—but not inspections that could be enforced "by any means necessary," the language favored by the president...
...Arafat tried, but Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon barred the Palestinians from leaving...
...The document, according to Bush, should be open to revision with fresh ideas from both sides...
...If Bush has his way, the U.N...
...For Blair, the announcement was intended to placate Labour left-wingers obsessed with the Palestinian cause and to establish Blair as a significant player in the Middle East...
...At the U.N., Blair urged Bush to seek a resolution, which Bush did...
...to recruit it to oversee postwar Iraq was Blair's...
...Administration officials are also skeptical about the quartet's willingness to hold the Palestinians account-able—for stopping suicide attacks on Israel, for instance...
...The two discussed the issue at Camp David without reaching agreement...
...He will see this and use it and say, 'I'm the address for the world' to reach the Palestinians...
...Blair also asked Bush to go along with a second U.N...
...Since the war began, Bush and Blair have talked daily...
...In truth, both were pushing on an open door...
...The Labour cabinet Accommodating Blair may be impossible...
...In discussions at the White House, Bush is tireless in reminding his inner circle: "We have to do everything we can to help Tony Blair...
...would serve as an umbrella group through which countries could funnel humanitarian assistance...
...For one thing, Blair has a higher opinion of the U.N...
...And he has more amicable relations with U.N...
...But the episode reveals the lengths to which Bush has gone to Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...But his closeness to Bush has led to sneering accusations that he's become Bush's "poodle...
...But the notion of going back to the U.N...
...Blair used the occasion of the announcement to advocate "evenhandedness," a code word for pressuring Israel...
...than Bush does...
...This was surprising because Blair had been so close to President Clin-ton—personally, politically, and ideologically...
...The final concession—for now, anyway—came at the Azores summit three days before the war began...
...The U.N...
...Last January, Blair set up a London conference on Palestinian reform and asked Arafat to send a delegation...
...The Bush administration rushed to his rescue...
...should be "centrally involved" in administering postwar Iraq...
...resolutions on human rights and other non-disarmament matters...
...Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross...
...But Blair also found big talk by Clinton was often not followed by action...
...Blair wants the document to be released and implemented...
...Blair credits himself with persuading the president to take the case against Saddam to the U.N...
...Bush feels beholden to Blair, but gratitude has its limits...
...As chummy as Bush and Blair are, prospects for agreement on the U.N...
...would immediately turn over the Oil-for-Food program and the $12 billion it holds in escrow to Iraq's new governing body...
...For Blair, once the war in Iraq is won, a little separation from the Americans may be what politics at home requires...
...Bush has called him a roadblock to peace and urged his ouster...
...On March 14, Bush in Washington and Blair in London announced the imminent release of the so-called road map for a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians...
...Bush was less scintillating but more reliable...
...A rupture between Bush and Blair isn't likely, but agreement won't be easy...
...More important, Bush has acceded time after time to serious steps or gestures that Blair believed would aid him politically in Great Britain...
...A barrage of phone calls was made from Washington by administration officials, key Republicans, and anyone else Bush advisers could find who was close to Conservative members of Parliament...
...The president and Blair are even further apart on the Middle East...
...than Bush does...
...Last week they conferred for two days at Camp David...
...The resolution failed despite intense lobbying by Bush and Blair...
...last fall...
...Besides, an administration official says, the U.N...
...Bush sees it as a pretext for reviving talks between Israel and the Palestinians...
...generally failed in its efforts to administer Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, and Cambodia...
...role...
...On the road map itself, Bush and Blair are at odds...
...Blair's presence meant the war would never be unilateral...
...Accommodating Blair may be impossible...
...Afterwards Blair said the U.N...
...Blair, however, lacks the widespread support at home for ousting Saddam that Bush has in the United States...
...Blair won on a 412-to-149 vote and his Conservative backing jumped from 129 to 152...
...member for international development, Claire Short, threatened to resign over the war but didn't, raising suspicions Blair had bought her off by promising to push for a major U.N...
...Bush was impressed and grateful...
...Without Blair, the president would be in a dicey situation and far less able to recruit allies against Iraq...
...After the Taliban was crushed in Afghanistan, Blair was on board from the beginning on the need to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, administration officials say...
...A slim majority of British public opinion didn't line up behind the war until the invasion started...
...The left wing of Blair's Labour party is fervently antiwar, as are the Liberal Democrats...
...This proved an embarrassment...
...Of course it would also be in Blair's political interest...
...He said this would be "in the interests of the international community and the coalition forces...
...Bush agreed with enlisting the U.N., but not for the commanding role envisioned by Blair...
...Blair treats Arafat as a legitimate leader, phoning him when release of the road map was announced and once more since then...
...Regardless, the special relationship will survive...
...and Middle East are poor...
...Among other things, it treats Palestinian terrorism and Israeli retaliation as morally equivalent...
...Bush is wary of the U.N...
...has got to be closely involved in this process...
...It was drafted by the "quartet"—the United States, the U.N., the European Union, and Russia—and is to be made public once the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, is sworn in...
...Blair would have won without it...
...The president began a press conference with Blair at Camp David with a remarkable tribute...
...Blair admired Clinton's intelligence and told associates Clinton had an amazing gift for instantly understanding any issue, even ones he hadn't dealt with...
...Now Blair is asking for more help in two areas where Bush has strong reservations about making concessions—Israel and the Palestinians, and the role for the United Nations in postwar Iraq...
...Until now, Blair has faithfully followed the advice of Winston Churchill that the British government should never get separated from the Americans...
...The U.S...
...I know Arafat," says former U.S...
...Secretary of State Powell gave Bush the same advice...
...We don't want his government to fall...
...Bush and Blair formed a tight relationship early in the Bush presidency...
...aid Blair, his brave and loyal ally against Iraq...
...On September 20, 2001, the day of Bush's speech to Congress and the nation after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Blair flew to Washington for dinner with Bush...
...Then he got Bush to accept a narrow resolution that didn't incorporate early U.N...
...We've learned that he's a man of his word...
...resolution on Iraq to assuage his critics...
...One act by Blair solidified the friendship in the eyes of Bush and his top aides...
...In the end, the aggressive support of the Bush administration was not crucial...
...America has learned a lot about Tony Blair over the last weeks," Bush said...
...A campaign was mobilized to induce Conservatives to vote with Blair...
...Security Council meeting earlier this year, which Bush thought was unnecessary but nonetheless agreed to...
...Bush has deep qualms about the road map...
...For one thing, Blair has a higher opinion of the U.N...
...BY FRED BARNES IN THE DAYS before the British Parliament voted on a resolution endorsing war with Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair was a nervous wreck...
...In London last week, Blair said the U.N...
...for good reasons...
...initially wants the military to administer postwar Iraq along with a council of Iraqis...
...He feared losing so many Labour members that the opposition Conservatives would be in a pivotal position to save or embarrass him...
...secretary general Kofi Annan...
Vol. 8 • April 2003 • No. 29
