If you look at the mess in Iraq, you cannot help but be struck by some very perplexing questions. The first is why did the United States and the United Kingdom, the democracies that won World War II and memorialized international law into the United Nations charter so blatantly disregard and trample all over international law and diplomacy? Why did these nations, supposedly committed to order and stability, engage in reckless unilateral actions that have destabilized the Middle East and brought chaos to the region? Again to quote Barbara Tuchman, it has become necessary "to see ourselves as the `bad guys' in the world's polarity."
I think I can cynically answer the two above with simple references to greed and ideology, but the one below has me completely stumped. After all, I understand the neo-conservative agenda and their perverse view of Middle East re-engineering. I also of course understand the harsh realities of Halliburton, Bechtel and no-bid contracts.
But what I do not understand is the role played by Tony Blair in this mess. Why did a dynamic, progressive Labour leader decide to become George Bush's pet poodle? I cannot figure that one out, because Blair, and certainly Britain, seems to have so little to gain and so very very much to lose.
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