Blair in talks with Bush to site US defence shield in Britain

Sometimes watching Blair makes me feel as if I am in some kind of time warp.

In the eighties we all marched through Greenham and Aldermaston objecting to Thatcher's decision to allow Reagan to position American cruise missiles in Britain. Our argument at the time was that the positioning of these weapons on British soil made us a target and that the final decision on the use of these weapons lay with a foreign power. Various right wing newspapers at the time published the lie that Maggie's finger was on the button, but only the most deluded ever took that remotely seriously.

The world is a very different place now than it was then. The Cold War is over. The Soviet Union no longer exists and, indeed, Russia is America's partner in the War on a Noun.

All of which makes Blair's attempts to have the US put American anti-ballistic weapons on British soil, as part of the American "Star Wars" defensive shield, seem bizarre.

It all seems to be part of Blair's wish to establish himself as more Thatcherite than even Thatcher was. At least when Thatcher turned us into a target she did so by employing a weapons system that was proven to work. Blair seems to want to turn us into a target by installing a US defence system that has so far proven unable to shoot down any incoming missile with any degree of reliability.

And, at a time when most of us would like to reduce our reliance on a nuclear defence, Blair seems to be joining Bush in ratcheting up tensions with the Russians who, rightly, see this missile "defence" as an act of hostility and an attempt to give the US the right to use nuclear weapons without fear of a nuclear retaliation against them.

And what's also astonishing about Blair's offer and the fact that he has now - for the first time - made such an offer public, is that the US appear not to even want to base these weapons in Britain.

The US deputy chief of mission in London, David Johnson, said: "As we go forward, there may be opportunities for us to talk to other countries about their needs, but right now we are concentrating on the Czech Republic and on Poland as the primary sites where we would be looking for this," he told BBC radio.

Leaving aside the hysterically funny claim by Mr Johnson that country's who accept these weapons will be doing so in consideration of "their needs" as opposed to the needs of the US, Johnson is actually knocking Blair back. He's saying, "thanks, but no thanks".

There seems no humiliation that Blair will not endure in order to prostrate himself before Bush and prove the "Special Relationship". A relationship that has, under Blair, revealed itself to be a hideously one way street.

The Prime Minister's eagerness to accept the weapons was seen by Labour MPs as part of an attempt by Mr Blair to clear the decks on legacy issues including a replacement for Trident, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and cuts in NHS waiting times, before handing over to Mr Brown. One Labour MP said it was like "a fire sale".

I mean we've got to the stage where we are not only acceding to every American request - whether it is in our interests or not - we are now actively offering to make ourselves targets, getting knocked back, and then making public our request to have a giant bullseye painted on UK Plc.

I try to avoid saying that politicians are insane or unhinged, however, Blair's actions are beginning to seem more and more detached from any kind of reality.

His interview on the Today programme this week was literally jaw dropping. If you haven't heard it I really would strongly recommend that you click here and do so. As one commentator at the Guardian observed, Blair now makes Comical Ali sound like the voice of reason.

Indeed, in the very week that Blair announced our ignominious withdrawal from Iraq in defeat, whilst loftily declaring that he accepted "no responsibility" for the chaos that is swirling throughout that country, a few words uttered by that loveable loon, Comical Ali, come back as an example of prescience.

"Do not be hasty because your disappointment will be huge," the old crazy warned. "You will reap nothing from this aggressive war, which you launched on Iraq, except for disgrace and defeat. We will embroil them, confuse them, and keep them in the quagmire."

It's a sad day when Comical Ali turns out to have had more foresight than the leaders of either the US or the UK.

And as Blair stumbles towards his exit, making rash offers to the US and ignoring the reality that is his political legacy, I am reminded of the words of Zig Ziglar, the American motivational speaker, "If you can learn from defeat, you haven't really lost."

Blair refuses to accept even a consolation as minor as that.

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Tags: Blair, Bush, UK, US, Comical Ali, cruise missiles, star wars, missile defence system, Iraq, Russia