Tony Blair Trying to Salvage His Legacy

With only about seven months to remain in office it looks like Tony Blair has decided it’s time to look after number one and attempt to put some distance between himself and his long time buddy Bush.

Blair has just announced a British troop pullout from Iraq. that would start within several weeks. The White House comment on this is that this demonstrates “success” in Iraq and that the US agrees with the goal of troop reduction.

How this comment will play with the American public at a time when Bush, “the decider” has decided to fly into the face of public opinion and move forward with his “troop surge” is fairly predictable. The Bush Whitehouse has perfected the art of spinning to such a degree that they seem quite dizzy and light headed in making comments that only open them to further ridicule.

I suppose that with very little credibility to lose President Bush thinks that the only way to go is up no matter how foolish his statements may be.

To their credit Tony Blair and the Brits have been taking the lead on global warming for some time now. Blair now states that he will attempt to make some progress with the US in getting the Bush administration to take some positive action in reducing emissions. Blair correctly sees that the most important issue confronting those concerned about the effects of global warming is that the US, under George Bush’s leadership, is not on the same page.

The United States has not signed the Kyoto agreement and still objects to any language in the upcoming G8 agreement that states that a prime reason for global warming is human activity. As the world’s leading polluter the US must agree to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order for significant progress to be made worldwide.

Blair pledges to renew his efforts to convince George Bush that the world can not afford to wait for new technology to solve the problem. With time running out for the British Prime Minster’s term in office we can only wish him good luck. He has finally realized that to stand any chance of salvaging his legacy he must part company with his up to now favorite Washington buddy and make some independent decisions.

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