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Blair is not Bush's Poodle
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
By Christopher Hitchens
The Daily Mirror

Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair



A British government that thought Afghanistan was only America's problem would have been a shameful and stupid one. There's nothing to apologize about in being an American ally at this moment: It belongs in the better tradition of the Labor Party's internationalism.



[ ... ]

Nobody can guarantee a successful outcome, and both Bush and Blair know they could face great reproach for failure. But the long period of unwise vacillation and moral neutrality seems to be drawing to a close, and this is a good thing in itself.



It is almost certainly a mistake to assume anybody's position on Iraq is determined by evidence alone.

After all, last year there was overwhelming evidence of the connection between the World Trade Center aggression, al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- and a decisive UN mandate for action -- but many on the left opposed military action in Afghanistan, and still do.

I have the feeling that Tony Blair would have felt happier making the moral case that Saddam must go.

He could then have laid more stress on the atrocious character of his regime, the plight of the Iraqi people, the aspirations of the Kurds and -- perhaps most importantly -- the opportunity to turn the tide against despotism in the wider Middle East.

But as Prime Minister of a nation which has a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations, he is obliged to be somewhat legalistic.

It must be obvious to anyone who can think at all that the charges against the Hussein regime are, as concerns arsenals of genocidal weaponry, true.
(More: The National Mirror News Source)
2002 © The Daily Mirror.

Dan