Rumsfeld’s Ouster Offers Blair Room to Breathe

The departure of Field Marshal Donald von Rumsfeld from the top office in the Pentagon (the world’s biggest office building) affects more than just the US. This repudiation of a failed policy, for it is nothing less, means that America’s allies in Iraq-Nam and elsewhere, will have to adapt to a new approach in Washington. As they tailor their responses, they may make changes, too. For Prime Minister Tony Blair, this is a golden opportunity to save his legacy.

Mr. Blair is irritating in much the way President Clinton was. A fine politician with excellent instincts, he is wasting his power and time on silly things. He has transformed Britain and Labour, and he is now fussing over “repackaging” prison sentences (rather than making them longer or shorter -- or butting out altogether). In his recasting of Labour as a party of grown-ups, he thought to steal the Tories’ clothes by being pro-American, and after September 11, 2001, it paid off. Then, someone in the Bush administration thought invading Iraq-Nam was a good idea, and Mr. Blair tagged along.

For all the good he’s done his country, Europe and the world, Mr. Blair will be remembered as the man who took Britain into a war the country didn’t want and didn’t need, and proceeded to help the Americans lose it. The four provinces in the south that the UK administered have been quieter than the rest of the country, but Tommies are dying along with GI Joe for the same lack of reasons.

The departure of the field marshal gives Mr. Blair a chance to undo much of what he has done. He needs to get a phone call to George “LBJ” Bush, and he needs to find out what the Iraq Study Group, headed by James Baker III (top Friend of Dad, the guy who fixed things for the president’s father), is going to recommend. He must find a way to get the ISG to say that the Brits need to leave soon. He can then pull this own chestnuts out of the fire. Failing that, he must read into the ISG’s report that it is time for the UK to leave.

His own party is divided over Iraq-Nam, and even if his soon-to-be successor, Chancellor Gordon Brown, is hated by Mr. Blair, healing that rift is a necessary action to secure any kind of legacy other than “war-bungler and American poodle.” A high-level fact-finding trip to Baghdad, meetings with Prime Minister al-Maliki and various ethnic leaders and visits with the troops can dress this up as a “Made in Britain” decision. The American voter has given Mr. Blair this chance, and he needs to take it. By May, when M r. Brown is expected to take over, it will be too late.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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