Blair's Suicide Policy
It would appear there is a split forming in the Labour Party cabinet about what further action to take against Iran with Tony Blair, drearily predictable, in his unswerving faith in the Amercan position of refusing to take any course of action, including the possible use of a nuclear strike against Iran, off of the table.
Jack Straw has already said he considers military action against Iran to be "inconceivable" and he recently described the American plan to go nuclear as "nuts".
Blair, however, has said that, "Now is not the time to show weakness."
It is at moments like these, that one can best see the suicide policy that Blair operates.
Knowing that his party does not follow him on any particular course of action, seems only to convince Blair further that he is right and that the party is wrong. Indeed, this has been his preferred method of operating since the abolition of Clause 4.
Somewhere in his mindset, Blair has become convinced - since the clause 4 moment - that his party are dinosaurs, and that it is his job to drag us screaming into the light. Thatcher had a similar view of the Tories in the eighties (the wets) and treated them in a similar manner to that with which Blair now treats us.
We saw it in the run-up to the Iraq war when, rather than turn back from a policy which has since proven so disasterous, Blair threatened resignation and almost caused the implosion of the Labour party to ensure that he got the Commons vote that allowed British troops to sail into their Mesopotamian nightmare.
He'll do the same over Iran. The more we resist, the more convinced Blair will become that he's right and that we are expousing some Old Labour pacifist nonsense.
It's a touch messianic. That's what makes the Thatcher comparison so valid.
This time though, it is imperative that he is resisted. Weakened by the disaster in Iraq, any threat now to implement his suicide policy, will result - not in the implosion of the Labour Party - but rather in the disintegration of Blair's Premiership.
If that's a path he chooses to walk, there is nothing we can do to stop him. But we must ensure that this lonely furrow is one that he walks alone.
The days when Tony could threaten his party into submission are over. His political capital has been expended in Fallujah, Tikrit, Basra and Baghdad.
He's got no more to spend.
Knowing that the Tories will, inevitably, support military action; the Labour Party will have to stand up to their own leader and stop any strike against Iran that would result in chaos in the Middle East.
It's time for the party to realise that sometimes principles matter as much, if not more, than power.
Click title for article.
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment