Prime Minister Blair gave Newsweek 'extraordinary access' in hopes of rescuing reputation 'shredded by Iraq'
 For two months, Prime Minister Tony Blair offered "extraordinary access to himself and his top aides" to Newsweek, in hopes of rescuing "Blair's legacy from the grip of Iraq," the magazine reports.
"More than any Western leader other than President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s reputation has been 'shredded by Iraq,' a senior Bush administration official who would only speak anonymously about a foreign leader, tells Newsweek," notes a press release sent to RAW STORY about the article. "Perhaps even more so than Bush: Blair transformed the Labour Party into a juggernaut and oversaw a 10-year renaissance in Britain. He had further to fall than the American president."
The press release continues, "Perhaps that’s why he’s digging in his heels now. Over the last two months, Blair allowed London Bureau Chief Stryker McGuire extraordinary access to himself and his top aides including several behind-the-scenes interviews at home and abroad. In the February 26 issue of Newsweek and the cover of Newsweek International (on newsstands Monday, February 19), McGuire reports that the leader he encountered was defiant to the point of denial. Again and again, he repeated the central point of his argument: that the war in Iraq is part of the war on terror, and that the war on terror is 'a battle of values and for progress.' When confronted by the charge that Iraq has been an abject failure, Blair says dismissively, 'You waste your time and energy in that kind of negativity.' Of his 26 percent approval rating, Blair says, 'Provided you think you’re right, you can get through it.'"
"The echoes of Bush are not accidental," the press release continues. "At least since September 11, the two men have been even closer than most people realize. They still speak at least once every couple of weeks."
The senior administration official tells Newsweek, "They are completely comfortable with one another; they practically finish each other’s sentences."
The press release adds, "If anything, the bond has grown tighter as the two leaders have each become more isolated, McGuire reports. In December, just after the Iraq Study Group report had dropped like a bomb on Bush’s desk, Blair was quick to stand by his side. On the flight from London to Washington, Blair toughened up the speech he’d deliver at a joint press conference the next day: he thanked the embattled Bush for 'the clarity of your vision.'"
Further excerpts from press release:
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That sort of sycophancy, McGuire reports, enrages critics who see the prime minister as Bush’s “poodle.” But Blair’s aides, who ask for anonymity in order to discuss confidential meetings, insist their man was helping to set the agenda in Washington. Privately, Blair encouraged Bush to use the intelligence British troops in Basra had collected on Iranian-made weapons in order to confront Tehran. (Their foreign-policy teams had been discussing such a “pushback” strategy since the summer was in Lebanon.) “We tried to fashion a more coherent and tougher policy based on the Iran that we were seeing, which was a more regionally assertive Iran,” says one of Blair’s advisers.
When Blair backed Bush’s plan to take on Saddam, he was if anything the “truer believer,” says Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s ambassador to Washington from 1997 until just before the war. The invasion satisfied Blair’s criteria for using military power—to stop the killing of innocents, McGuire reports.
That moral high ground is pretty much all Blair has anymore. Soon after his Washington visit, he embarked on a whistlestop tour of the Middle East, traveling to five countries in as many days. The trip was reminiscent of his globe-trotting in the aftermath of 9/11, when he rallied support for America and reaffirmed Britain as its indispensable ally. But on the half-empty 747 that Downing Street had chartered, the traveling press despaired because their editors were so uninterested in the trip. (“Can you keep the word ‘Blair’ out of your lead?” one scribbler was told by his news desk.) One day the prime minister’s official spokesman gathered the journalists to declare, “This is not a day for announcements.” Translation: no news.
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FULL NEWSWEEK ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
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