President George Bush will give a speech outlining his new Iraq policy on Wednesday night, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair is generating his own headlines with his thoughts on that country, which most observers concede is at – or heading towards – "civil war."
One headline thought by Blair in the news appears to put him on the opposite side of his "Coalition of the Willing" partner; his answer to the question on most everyone's mind in Washington, DC the past few weeks: to "surge" or not to "surge."
"Tony Blair will make clear this week that Britain is not going to send more troops to Iraq even if the US pushes ahead with a 'surge' of 20,000 extra soldiers," the Daily Mail reported today.
"The Prime Minister will insist that the UK will stick to its own strategy of gradually handing over to the Iraqi army, as it has been doing with success in Basra and the south," the article continued.
On Sunday, Blair called the execution of Saddam Hussein "completely wrong."
"He believes that the manner of the execution was completely wrong, but that should not lead us to forget the crimes that Saddam Hussein committed, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis," an unnamed spokeswoman for Blair’s office told the AP.
"Blair’s likely successor, Treasury chief Gordon Brown, said Saturday that the taunting of Saddam during his execution and the release of an illicitly recorded cell phone video was 'deplorable' and 'completely unacceptable,'" the article continued.
The following British television video clip covers Blair and his deputy prime minister's condemnations on the way in which Saddam was executed, their feelings on how an extra 20,000 troops won't make a difference, and their commitment to pulling UK forces out of Iraq:
President George Bush will give a speech outlining his new Iraq policy on Wednesday night, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair is generating his own headlines with his thoughts on that country, which most observers concede is at – or heading towards – "civil war."