UK envoys blast Blair for backing US

[hang a left]

UK envoys blast Blair for backing US


Monday 26 April 2004, 23:41 Makka Time, 20:41 GMT


Britain's prime minister faces unprecedented dissent






More than 50 former British diplomats have blasted Tony Blair, saying the prime minister must either influence America's "doomed" policy in the Middle East, or stop backing it.


In an unprecedented letter published on Monday by 52 former ambassadors, high commissioners and governors - the top ranks of British diplomacy - Blair was urged to sway US policy in the region as "a matter of the highest urgency".

The diplomats, among them former ambassadors to Iraq and Israel, told Blair they had "watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close cooperation with the United States.

"We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment," said the letter, sent to Blair and made available to the media.

Objectives defended

snip

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/899508CA-2B5D-4B83-A0DB-83A7E01FBDE2.htm

[many a good man]

1. Think Blair would help fellow Third Wayer Kerry?

by nailing Bush* before the election?

[NJCher]

2. saw this on the BBC tonight

It was really powerful. Blair has lost all credibility. Poor sumb*$#&.


Cher

[JoFerret]

3. The Guardian weighs in

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1203898,00.html

[the Kelly Gang]

4. undoubtedly the worst PM Britain has ever had..and I never thought I

would say that about a Labour PM. Until now I thought that Thatcher had damaged the UK the most.
But then what would one expect from Thatcher admirer, Blair is such a disappointment to so many Labour suppporters.
I'm sure he's done a deal with the Devil now I think how the very decent John Smith who would have been PM had a heart atack and died, allowing Blair to take the helm.

[Matilda]

7. Yep, the devil in the guise of our old friend Rupert Murdoch.

He's the one pulling Tony's strings. Somehow both of them forgot
though that there's millions of people out there who can vote, and
they won't forget how Blair has let them, and the country, down.

There's no way Bush will listen to Blair - the W.H. will treat him
with the contempt he deserves.

And even if he did a complete back-flip now, I suspect it's already
too late to save his hide.

[T_i_B]

10. We have actually had worse

Lord North, who lost us the US for instance. Blair was OK at one point, but he has become increasingly arrogant and out of touch.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. Entire letter here (public letter so OK to past the whole thing?)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3660837.stm
Ambassadors' letter to Blair

Here is the letter sent by more than 50 former British ambassadors to Tony Blair, urging him either to influence US policy in the Middle East or to stop backing it:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials, including some who have long experience of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States.

Following the press conference in Washington at which you and President Bush restated these policies, we feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment.

The decision by the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN to launch a "Road Map" for the settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the major powers would at last make a determined and collective effort to resolve a problem which, more than any other, has for decades poisoned relations between the West and the Islamic and Arab worlds.

... But the hopes were ill-founded. Nothing effective has been done either to move the negotiations forward or to curb the violence.

Britain and the other sponsors of the Road Map merely waited on American leadership, but waited in vain.

Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the international community has now been confronted with the announcement by Ariel Sharon and President Bush of new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood.

Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land and which have been the basis for such successes as those efforts have produced.

This abandonment of principle comes at a time when rightly or wrongly we are portrayed throughout the Arab and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and brutal occupation in Iraq.

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement.

All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the Coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case.

To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful.

Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex country in the region.

... The military actions of the Coalition forces must be guided by political objectives and by the requirements of the Iraq theatre itself, not by criteria remote from them.

It is not good enough to say that the use of force is a matter for local commanders.

Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Falluja, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition.

... We share your view that the British government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the United States on both these related issues, and in exerting real influence as a loyal ally.

We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency.

If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure.

The signatories are: Brian Barder; Paul Bergne; John Birch; David Blatherwick; Graham Boyce; Julian Bullard; Juliet Campbell; Bryan Cartledge; Terence Clark; David Colvin; Francis Cornish; James Craig; Brian Crowe; Basil Eastwood; Stephen Egerton; William Fullerton; Dick Fyjis-Walker; Marrack Goulding; John Graham; Andrew Green; Vic Henderson; Peter Hinchcliffe; Brian Hitch; Archie Lamb and David Logan.

Also: Christopher Long; Ivor Lucas; Ian McCluney; Maureen MacGlashan; Philip McLean; Christopher MacRae; Oliver Miles; Martin Morland; Keith Morris; Richard Muir; Alan Munro; Stephen Nash; Robin O'Neill; Andrew Palmer; Bill Quantrill; David Ratford; Tom Richardson; Andrew Stuart; David Tatham; Crispin Tickell; Derek Tonkin; Charles Treadwell; Hugh Tunnell; Jeremy Varcoe; Hooky Walker; Michael Weir and Alan White.

[JoFerret]

6. Story has legs on the BBC

.

[Eye and Monkey]

8. These would not be people who generally "make their anxieties public".

Finally, some code-words for folks with above-moranic cognizance.

I hope it helps make enough legs to carry Blair to his banishment to corpoRATe-etherland.

[dusty64]

9. So much for our free media,

not a word of this that I've seen outside this forum.

[emad]

11. Final days of the Poodle Brothers?

"PM has influence over Bush"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3662245.stm