How Tony Blair botched it all

Slate has an article this morning titled, "How Blair botched the Iran hostage crises," The article pointed out, "Has this been a diplomatic triumph for Blair or a humiliation for Britain?" asked the Daily Mail. Many people agree that it was the latter, all the way through Wednesday, when the ever-unpredictable Iranian president produced his dazzling coup de théâtre and announced the release of the prisoners. "The Clemency of Mahmoud" was a brilliant performance, a good deal better, certainly, than Tony Blair's."

The one thing I noticed about the whole UK captive situation was the manner in which the United States maintained a low profile throughout the entire crisis.

During meetings at the White House, President Bush was asked if the five Iranians arrested by US forces in Iraq should be freed to favor a possible release of the fifteen Britons, he replied, there should be no "quid pro quos" with Iran. The next comment, from Camp David was stronger worded when President Bush denounced the claims of territorial violations by Iran and called for the immediate release of the hostages.

The harshest wording the President used was calling Iran's actions, "inexcusable behavior."Wow, I'll bet that scared the beejeebes out of Iran. Bush never even called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a big poo-poo head, something I've always thought a president should call someone.

Even Vice President Dick Cheney, who, when not stashed away in undisclosed locations, tends to say things that tick people off, did not have much to say except, "it was unfortunate that they were ever taken in the first place." Oh man, first President Bush and now Cheney too, can they become anymore insulting?

That was about it, no banging the war drums, dragging out all the photos of the 444 American citizen's standing before cameras with blindfolds over their eyes, drawing parallels to aid Briton in calling the incident an act of war, something that Tony Blair never did get around to saying.

There is a very good reason that the Bush administration, including the President himself kept a low vocal profile during the British crisis, they knew that Tony Blair had already slammed the lid down on his fingers, was wearing four Mickey and Donald Band-Aids and popping Advil every four hours, in other words, they knew that it was all over for Blair, all that was left was the pain to come. They knew it was over the moment Blair changed the tone of his public words from terse to that of pleading.

The initial warning Blair had imbedded within his words, "that his government would have to take increasingly tough decisions," quickly toned down to asking the United Nations for help with the captive crisis and it sent a message to Ahmadinejad that Blair was not going to pursue any military resolution, instead he needed help, so he went to the United Nations to beg for it. To Ahmadinejad, this was the same as running to your Mother because the bully won't give your ice cream back. To him, it was party time, he's going to Disneyland.

In one of my original posts on this incident, I stated that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had planned this incident in an effort to regain respect from within his country, nothing more and that is exactly what he did. If Ahmadinejad had made this move before the war in Iraq, he would have faced the possibility of a combined retaliation from both Briton and the United States, however, he read the cards right and his gamble worked, when by rights, it should not have.

Seeing Ahmadinejad swagger into the sunset knowing he just made Briton say Uncle, made me run looking for the barf bags, lots of them! The very thought of this chunk of human waste walking away from this incident, with newfound respect of the Middle East Muslim world and his own people while Tony Blair, faces humiliation, perhaps even worse. We can only hope the day will come when I no longer have to discuss this idiotic, disgusting excuse for a human being. I can only hope and wait for that day to arrive.