Please help me. I have a long running love/hate relationship with Chris Hitchens that is far more likely to veer towards the latter, but I have to give him props (mostly) for this support of Blair. Please forgive me for posting this, but he makes a good point, and as always perhaps, a far too short and narrow one.....
There are things to dislike about Tony Blair. His rather sickly piety is one, and his liberal authoritarianism, on matters such as smoking and fox-hunting, is another. I can't forgive him for calling Diana Spencer "the People's Princess," or for seeking the approval of the Fleet Street rags, and he is one of those politicians who seems to think that staying "on message" is an achievement in itself. Nonetheless, he took a bold stand against the establishment and against a sullen public opinion and did so on a major issue of principle. It is absolutely necessary that his right-wing and clerical enemies be humiliated at the polls.
Now that I've read the link, I still fail to see why it's so commendable that Blair supported the Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq incursions; while it's pretty well established at this point that there are awful dictators in the world, why is it imperative to remove certain of them but not others? Why is white genocide enough to rouse us, and black genocide insufficient? It cannot escape anyone's notice that American interests in these conflicts are always about oil, just as are Britain's. Empires need to keep their armies gassed up, after all.
So, great, Blair's all principled and shit. It's a stupid principle. Pointing out that it's the supposedly conservative Tories that are anti-Bush is idiotic; of course they're anti-Bush: he's pro-Blair. Politics trumps principles, which Hitch seems to be twisting into support for Blair's dogged commitment to his failed ideals.
The real problem is the same one we have: there are no candidates that don't suck.
Actually it was the 'there are many reasons to dislike' bit that I was agreeing with. And you are so riught about the Tories and Bush - they'd be over him like an unmentionable rash if they ever got into power.
Oh F! Oh F! Oh F! Finding myself agreeing with Chris Hitchens! Oh F!
C