This in itself has caused howls of rage among some Members of the British Parliament who failed in an attempt to get Blair to accept an enquiry into the conduct of the war here in the UK in front of his own Parliament.
It would seem that Blair has wandered off the original mandate and suggested to Baker that one of the significant stepping stones to peace in Iraq would be for the west ( and he means America in particular) to step up diplomatic initiatives to resolve the tension between Israel and Hamas.
I mean, like - hello, Tony - are you really serious that such a deal would have a major impact on the political situation in Iraq? Or are you playing for time so that we have to make no decision about our own troops in Iraq until you have left office and Gordon Brown has all the shit to deal with? Forgive my cynicism but I suspect the latter.
I am strongly in favour of diplomatic initiatives to resolve the Israel/Palestinian crisis but how long does Blair think that is going to take?
The truth is that we need new and radical initiatives in Iraq NOW not some time come never. It is apparent that the root causes of certain sectarian violence is being ignored, like the kidnap of over 100 people yesterday of one particular Islamic following, where the police responsible for their welfare were from the other major sect. This just cannot go on and the US and Britain HAVE to exercise some form of blackmail in dealing with Talibani and Al-Maliki to the effect that these Iraqi officials need to get their act together if they expect to be helped to stay in office by the presence of US and British troops for ANY reasonable length of time - that or we pull put and simply leave them to it.
Bush and Blair need to apply themselves very clearly and very directly to what is going on in Iraq. Muddying already muddy waters still further by waffling on about the Palestinians in this context is simply hot air.
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