Compliant And Subservient
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Courtesy Of: The Sunday Telegraph
By John Preston and Melissa Kite
Monday 28 August 2006

Tony Blair's lack of leadership and timid subservience to George W Bush lie behind the ongoing crisis in Iraq and the worldwide threat of terrorism, according to the former American President Jimmy Carter.

"I have been surprised and extremely disappointed by Tony Blair's behaviour," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"I think that more than any other person in the world the Prime Minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington--And he has not. I really thought that Tony Blair, who I know personally to some degree, would be a constraint on President Bush's policies toward Iraq."

...Mr Carter also said that the Iraq invasion had subverted the fight against terrorism and instead strengthened al-Qaeda and the recruitment of terrorists.

"In many countries where I met with leaders and private citizens there is an equating of American policy with Great Britain--With Great Britain playing the lesser role."

"We now have a situation where America is so unpopular overseas that even in countries like Egypt and Jordan our approval ratings are less than five per cent. It's a shameful and pitiful state of affairs and I hold your British Prime Minister to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient."

...Mr Carter...has Just published a book, Faith And Freedom, in which he savages the American administration for leading the country into insularity and intolerance.

"We've never before had an administration that would endorse pre-emptive war--That is a basic policy of going to war against another country even though our own security was not directly threatened," he said...

But had he still been President, he says he would never have considered invading Iraq in 2003.

"No," he said, "I would never have ordered it. However, I wouldn't have excluded going into Afghanistan, because I think we had to strike at al-Qaeda and its leadership. But then, to a major degree, we abandoned the anti-terrorist effort and went almost unilaterally with Great Britain into Iraq."

This, Mr Carter believes, subverted the effectiveness of anti-terrorist efforts. Far from achieving peace and stability, the result has been a disaster on all fronts.

"My personal opinion is that the Iraqi people are not better off as a result of the invasion and people in America and Great Britain are not safer."

Source:
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=Q2BMVQDOW0SZJQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/08/27/nblair27.xml