Ode to Tony
I remember watching a press conference between George W. Bush and Tony Blair a couple months into Bush’s first term. It was the first meeting between the two heads of state and the media made it a test for the incoming president. Questions and speculation were abound with people wondering if Bush could live up to Clinton’s relationship with the U.K and Tony Blair. It was early 2001 and concerns over policy matters were minor. As the press conference proceeded with it’s usual diplomatic schmoozing, a reporter asked Bush if he had discovered any similarities between the two leaders. To the best of my recollection Bush answered something like ‘Ya, we both have the same toothpaste: Colgate.’ The only person who seemed not to feel the embarrassment of such a response was the one who uttered it. A quick look at Blair revealed a real unease about the whole thing. ‘Get me out of here, bring back Clinton,’ he must have thought. The whole exchange was really awkward and led many to question the incoming president’s ability to forge a serious relationship with that darling of the U.S. press, Tony Blair.
Flash to last week.
The reviled poodle with his tail between his legs gets the not-so-polite kick to the curb out onto Downing St. After 10 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair stepped down, leaving Her Majesty’s government in the hands of Gordon Brown. There was little celebration, appreciation, or attention to matter. It was an altogether sober affair. With a stiff upper lip, Britain moved on to the next guy.
There are many reasons why people don’t like Blair. Conservatives in Britain always distrusted his New Labour movement, just as the right in the U.S. distrusted Clinton’s push to the center. He also was accused of a lot of doublespeak and rhetorical fluff ,without any real substance behind it. But by far the main reason is the obvious: Iraq. Put aside all the improvements to the U.K’s economy, healthcare, and school system. Put aside the monumental shift to the center in British politics. Put aside the success in the Northern Ireland peace process. Iraq nullifies it all. The decision to join the US led Coalition of the Willing and invade Iraq will forever remain Tony Blair’s defining legacy. But as the debate unfolds with this controversial decision, one thing is sure: any initial apprehensions coming from that first press conference were thoroughly wrong, the Colgate leaders did indeed forge a serious relationship.
It’ll be many years before the decision to invade Iraq can be fully understood — the underlying reasons, the precipitating events. Some will say it was a neo-conservative conspiracy, it was Halliburton, it was for the oil. Others will contend that the cowboy was trying to do what pops couldn‘t. Some will say it was for Israel. But what all these theories seem to lack is an understanding of where and how the decision was made, and by whom. Corporations don’t go to war. Nations don’t go to war. Individuals go to war, and individuals make the decision to do so. And any serious student of history must recognize where the decision comes from — the views and beliefs behind it, the vision and goals of it, the context. And to the extent that the decision in question is deduced to a single person and a multitude of surreptitious reasons, the Iraq war will continue to be misunderstood and cynicism will continue to pervade the course of events to come. For all likelihood the decision did not come through committee nor solitude, but partnership. In all likelihood the decision to invade was one made by individuals who recognized the necessity of intervention, who accepted that the status quo was no longer tenable, who understood the monumental changes to come.
At the core of this decision was an inherent understanding of the conditions which have given rise to random slaughter of innocents (which have been generically labeled terrorism), an understanding that these same conditions also necessitated the militarization of economy and society , and an understanding that the nexus of the two would mean global devastation and deprivation. And so the decision was made to remove these conditions, and by doing so remove any of the last superficial cultural, political, and religious barriers which divide the world into perpetually conflicting clans. It was a fateful decision and most seem all to ready to dismiss it. But the reality is that it happened and we can’t go back. And to those who say the genie was let out of the bottle, I ask you to consider how long the genie was going to stay in there anyways, and what a policy would look like which attempted to keep it in there. The fact is that Bush and Blair recognized how revolutionary their decision was, for Iraq and beyond. And yet they knew that to shy away from it would put the onus on a future generation which might not have the advantages of the current. And so as all great leaders find their purpose in committing their nations to making a fateful step to a better future, George W. Bush and Tony Blair took solace in the fact the decision was self-evident. They turned to each other and saw someone else who believed too.
Today we are witnessing (and participating in) the shrinking away of the task which these men have set out. We have turned away from the idealism which we felt following that horrific day in September. We are turning to those who promise an easy way out. And as it becomes clear that this impulse for an “exit strategy” will not work, we will recall the talk of democracy and freedom, of pluralism and liberation, and we will laugh and then scoff. We will see all the problems of the world coming from such idealism and beliefs, and we will view those who uttered them with pure contempt. Until one day we will see what they saw. We will feel what they felt. We will turn to each other and see someone else who believes and we will fight. But as of last week we have just begun to live in the shadow of one of these men. We have a long way to go before we can truly appreciate what he did and truly be inspired by his leadership. Tony, you will be missed. Thank you and farewell.
Tony Blair — poodle my ass.
