A Moderating Influence
The president-elect of the United States has been handed yet another little difficulty to cope with: he has been endorsed by Tony Blair. The recently-ascended Vicar of Downing Street has taken time off from his busy schedule as fairly-paid public speaker and saviour of the Middle East in order to have a bit of a chat with the country's leading liberal newspaper.
Tony's recommendation is that, at least to start with, Obama should say some things, specifically the sort of things Tony was saying around 1997: "I think he can say to Europe, look I'm going to champion a global deal on climate change, I'm going to take the Middle East peace process seriously, I'm going to make sure that poverty in Africa is right at the top of the agenda, I'm going to listen to your concerns and get a shared agenda with you." Later on, of course, Obama will have to do as Tony did and "create a unifying agenda" which "will encompass American interests and demands". Like Tony, Obama will face "tough choices all around", such as whether to throw money at rich people or at poor people.
As somebody or other's special envoy to the Middle East, Tony also believes that Obama should do something about the Middle East, where there is "a battle between those who want a modern and progressive future and those who are reactionary extreme"; the latter presumably being the kind of people who see see things in rigid black and white and whose response to an international problem is to kill large numbers of people with explosions and pious rhetoric. Tony diagnosed "the error in international policy, in a way", which is to pursue political deals without changing "the reality on the ground". Tony, of course, has never been one to make that sort of mistake, as witness his government's response during Israel's rampage in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, when Margaret Beckett joined Condoleezza Rice in preventing unwarranted political interference with the Righteous State's fun and games on the ground.
Tony mentioned Iraq once, as an example of the kind of thing that can happen when certain parties do not want a modern and progressive future. The country's leading liberal newspaper does not appear to have pursued the matter.
Tony's recommendation is that, at least to start with, Obama should say some things, specifically the sort of things Tony was saying around 1997: "I think he can say to Europe, look I'm going to champion a global deal on climate change, I'm going to take the Middle East peace process seriously, I'm going to make sure that poverty in Africa is right at the top of the agenda, I'm going to listen to your concerns and get a shared agenda with you." Later on, of course, Obama will have to do as Tony did and "create a unifying agenda" which "will encompass American interests and demands". Like Tony, Obama will face "tough choices all around", such as whether to throw money at rich people or at poor people.
As somebody or other's special envoy to the Middle East, Tony also believes that Obama should do something about the Middle East, where there is "a battle between those who want a modern and progressive future and those who are reactionary extreme"; the latter presumably being the kind of people who see see things in rigid black and white and whose response to an international problem is to kill large numbers of people with explosions and pious rhetoric. Tony diagnosed "the error in international policy, in a way", which is to pursue political deals without changing "the reality on the ground". Tony, of course, has never been one to make that sort of mistake, as witness his government's response during Israel's rampage in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, when Margaret Beckett joined Condoleezza Rice in preventing unwarranted political interference with the Righteous State's fun and games on the ground.
Tony mentioned Iraq once, as an example of the kind of thing that can happen when certain parties do not want a modern and progressive future. The country's leading liberal newspaper does not appear to have pursued the matter.
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