tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15037609.post115454174214845541..comments2023-10-01T16:53:17.274+01:00Comments on Cicero's Songs: 51st StateCicerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02090838836212624633noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15037609.post-1154607821062153812006-08-03T13:23:00.000+01:002006-08-03T13:23:00.000+01:00For an insight into Blair's thinking on all this r...For an insight into Blair's thinking on all this read this recent speech.<BR/><BR/>http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page9948.asp<BR/><BR/>It's a bit long but you can clearly see he believes himself to be leading a principled foreign policy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15037609.post-1154595290417709152006-08-03T09:54:00.000+01:002006-08-03T09:54:00.000+01:00It is a reasonable question to ask – can we have a...It is a reasonable question to ask – can we have an independent foreign policy – but I think you misjudge why Blair has taken the stances he has. His position on Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan were not driven by being craven. Quite the contrary he has displayed courage because he is fully aware of the opposition at home, even within his party and cabinet.<BR/><BR/>It is well known that Bush didn’t press Blair to send soldiers to Iraq, knowing the domestic political cost. Blair chose to commit out of a sense of principal. His position on the current Hezbollah – Israel conflict is also a principled one. He believes that the rise of Islamist fascism should be countered and that capitulation and appeasement will not work. He believes that the goals of groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Lashkar e Tayyba, Jaish e Mohammed, Algerian Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat, Jemaah Islamiah etc are irreconcilable with our fundamental principals of liberty, equality and democracy. It’s one I agree with and why I argued on another post that the strident criticism of Israel by ‘doves’ like Sir Ming and Clare Short fail to take account of what the Israelis are fighting for and against. You can argue that Israel should have been more careful or dropped leaflets earlier but the basic fact is they try to limit civilian life but Hezbollah and their peers openly admit their genocidal ambitions.<BR/><BR/>You are free to disagree with the principals behind Blair’s foreign policy decisions but it is simply wrong to put it down to craven support for the USA. You can argue that Blair’s actions put us on the front line against Islamist facism and put us at greater risk of terrorism. That may well be true but to argue that that is a reason why we should have a foreign policy that seeks to appease the Islamists would be truly craven.<BR/><BR/>As a footnote I'd say it’s a bit of a misleading overstatement to claim that GCHQ is “transparent to the US agencies, especially the NSA.” There is a lot of joint working and the UK benefits enourmously from this but that does not make GCHQ transparent.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com