The Lonely Man of Europe

...But once Blair decides something is "the right thing to do," he is unmovable...

...terror-fighting efforts...

...But none of these countries or its leaders carries the weight in Europe's opinion-forming circles that Aznar did...

...Foreign Secretary Jack Straw points out repeatedly that 9/11 preceded the deposing of Saddam, that Turkey was attacked even though its leaders had declined to provide a launching pad for coalition troops, and that Bali's disco-goers were hardly preparing to volunteer for service in Iraq...

...Only surrender will suit them...

...Mr...

...This will allow him to withdraw his 1,300 troops on July 1, as promised— unless the U.N...

...While on the subject of useful idiots...

...Downing Street is desperately trying to convince the public that the invasion of Iraq has nothing to do with the Madrid slaughter...

...Blair remains under siege by members of his own party because of the failure of search teams to find weapons of mass destruction, and because he is seen by his enemies as Bush's poodle...

...You can't organize a war with lies...

...True, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi remains with Blair, but he lacks Aznar's gravitas and international standing...

...Meanwhile Blair is left to ponder a lonely future, one in which he is almost alone among Europe's major leaders in wishing to stand with the United States in fighting a comprehensive war on terror...

...Islamic terrorists, in short, did not need Iraq as a pretext to kill and maim...

...This is an unfortunate and horrifying message to send terrorists," he added...

...As he has throughout the post-September 11 period, Blair continues to risk political oblivion by defending the moral necessity of the liberation of Iraq, and the need for preemptive strikes if the West is to prevent its way of life from being destroyed by Islamic terrorists...

...At his party's conference immediately after the Madrid bombing, he repeated his position: Britain is in "mortal danger" from terrorists intent on destroying our way of life, and they must be defeated...

...The media here, mostly following the BBC's leftish slant, can't help chortling that Labour leader Blair finds himself disappointed at the victory of a left-of-center government in Spain, and rooting for the defeat of a left-of-center candidate in the U.S...

...provides him with an acceptable excuse to renege, which, rumor has it, he is desperately hoping will hap-pen—and still claim credentials as a bona fide terrorist fighter...

...dent, liars—"Mr...

...He craves to be a war leader...

...Blair and Mr...

...Blair . . . is roaming the world in search of dragons...

...Bush, accustomed to being called a liar by John Kerry and his party, probably took less offense than Blair, whose annoyance was increased when a top Zapatero lieutenant called him "a complete dickhead...

...In a piece prepared earlier but published in the Spectator on the day of the Madrid tragedy, Jenkins ridicules the prime minister's fears of a terrorist attack: "Anyone who respects Western civilization would not think it 'in mortal danger' from gangs of Islamic fanatics...

...The media also managed to use the Madrid tragedy as an excuse for more Bush-bashing...

...With Jose Mar^a Aznar now headed to the world of think tanks and corporate boardrooms, Blair stands almost alone as a European leader willing to expend blood and treasure to establish Iraq as a democratic and peaceful model for a 21st-century Middle East...

...As one observer put it, referring to the famous pre-Iraq war photo of Bush, Blair, and Aznar in the Azores, we may be seeing a scenario of one down, two to go...

...That separation of terrorism from the invasion of Iraq may provide the silver lining that Downing Street finds so difficult to discern in the immediate aftermath of the Madrid attack...

...Still, I am told that Blair's congratulatory call was well received...

...And to send to Blair...

...You have to look awfully hard to find a silver lining in this cloud," a top official at No...

...Zapatero has consistently contended that the war on terror must be waged, but that Iraq is the wrong venue...

...As a top Blair adviser told me, "The British people don't hide...

...Other Blair advisers note that terrorists have killed German tourists and sunk a French tanker, and that Air France planes are threatened and often can_ celled, even though Gerhard Schroder and Jacques Chirac led the effort to prevent the invasion of Iraq...

...Fortunately, Blair is sufficiently eloquent, and the Brits are sufficiently sensible, that at least one poll shows a 49 percent-to-39 percent margin saying that the invasion of Iraq was a good thing to have done...

...Spain's new leader, the Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, used his postelection speech to call his British counterpart, and the American presiIrwin M. Stelzer is a contributing editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, and a columnist for the Sunday Times (London...

...Islamic terrorists are far more dangerous than the IRA's death squads because the Irish terrorists had specific territorial and political demands that could be negotiated, whereas the goal of Islamic fanatics is to force Britain and the West to return to the glory days of Islam...

...Spain will remain a member of NATO, and will cooperate with other European countries that are now planning greater coordination among themselves of E.U...

...Blair also expects plucky little Poland—to borrow a title once conferred on Belgium —to stand firm (despite the recent wavering by its prime minister), as will the Danes and, most likely but not certainly, the Dutch...

...10 Downing Street told me, as he contemplated the consequences of the Spanish electorate's decision to put in place a government pledged to pull that nation's troops out of Iraq...

...the chattering class's top columnist, Sir Simon Jenkins, managed to provide Blair's team with its only laugh of the week...

...Joan Smith, a columnist with the Independent, somehow found in Prime Minister Aznar's reaction to the Madrid bombings—what Europeans are calling 3/11—a contrast with Bush's performance after 9/11...

...Zapatero promised Spain's continued support for the British prime minister's drive to reform the sclerotic European Union economy—although it is unclear how Zapatero can do this, while at the same time restoring "magnificent relations" with France and Germany (relations with the United States are to be merely "cordial...

...But . . . this is no war...

...Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism...

...So speak Britain's chattering classes while their prime minister wakes up every morning hoping that today is not the day when London will become a New York, or an Istanbul, or a Bali, or a Madrid, but convinced that day will certainly come...

...In a televised address within hours of the murders," she writes, "Aznar was angry but controlled, in marked contrast to the stumbling performance of George Bush after the suicide bombings of 11 September 2001...

...elections...