peterography

After Tony Blair announced his enthusiastic support for the invasion of Iraq he was widely castigated as George Bush’s “poodle”, his “lap dog”, his “puppy”. But it took George Michael’s 2002 music video for “Shoot the Dog” to cement this image in people’s minds. It shows Blair chasing a ball across the White House lawn and then rolling over on his back while Bush rubs his tummy.

So this week when Tony Blair visited Washington on his farewell tour, Bush held a press conference with him in the Rose Garden. And trying to choose just the right adjective to describe the quality he admired most about Blair, Bush praised him, without the slightest hint of irony,  for being so “dogged”.

Many people believe that we might never have invaded Iraq had it not been for Tony Blair’s support. Just yesterday Jimmy Carter, speaking to the BBC added his voice to the long list. (Carter Interview on BBC)

Prior to the invasion Bush desperately needed to add legitimacy to his “coalition of the willing”. Small or token contributions by Spain, Poland, Australia, Costa Rica, and others just didn’t cut it. Blair’s contribution of 43,000 troops for the invasion made it seem like a real coalition and helped sell it to the American public.

But more important than an armored division, several brigades and substantial Royal Navy and Royal Air Force assets was Blair himself. Intelligent and articulate, he was a mover and shaker. He had already transformed the Labour Party, even renaming it New Labour, moving it to the center, marginalizing its old lefties, and gaining a huge majority in Parliament. His policies had streamlined and invigorated the British economy, giving it a growth rate and job generating power that left Germany and France behind.

And in 2002 he was the darling of the American Clintonistas. Not only was he a centrist progressive like Clinton, but his intelligence and eloquence seemed like a tonic for the bizarre policies and statements issuing almost daily from the Bush White House. In December 2002 Thomas Friedman wrote an article in the New York Times entitled “Blair for President”, expressing the admiration of many American liberals: “He’s tough on national security, he has an alternative global vision, people like him and he is a beautiful, reassuring speaker. He’s Bill Clinton without baggage. I’d say he’s a natural.”

Friedman famously supported the invasion of Iraq, a position he has defended, like Blair himself, with ever more tortuous rationalizations. And many other American centrists and liberals did so too, but have since regretted it. I’ll never understand why so many of my fellows supported the invasion but in my conversations with them, Blair and his support for the project were almost always mentioned. (for the record: in 2003 I sent a posting to BBC’s “Talking Point” website saying that “if we invade Iraq we had better learn what the Arabic word for ‘quagmire’ is.”)

We’ll never know whether this tragedy would have occurred if Blair had witheld his support. But all his other accomplishments, most recently an historical agreement in Northern Ireland, will forever be overshadowed by his terrible decision to help America invade Iraq.