Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Bush Admits To Destroying Blairs Career

Juan Cole 05/17/2007

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

Bush Admits to Destroying Blair’s Career

I just caught some of the Bush/Blair news conference on the adult version of CNN at noon.

At one point, a reporter asked Bush point blank if he was the cause of Tony Blair having to step down as prime minister.

Now, when you get a question like that as a politician, surely you have a lot of options for answering. You could reply with a self-deprecating joke. Or you could insist that Blair is a statesman in his own right whose record stands on its own. Or something.

What you wouldn’t want to do is to grant the premise of the reporter’s question.

Bush, with his deer in the headlight gaze, actually answered the question.

In the affirmative.

BBC says:

‘ Appearing at a joint press conference at the White House, Mr Bush was asked if he was responsible for the end of Mr Blair’s premiership.

He said: “I could be” ‘

Bush later became angry that a reporter was, as he put it, “dancing on Blair’s political grave,” insisting that he would work with Blair until he stepped down. I.e. until mid June!

Why he was so angry with the reporter for jumping the gun a few weeks when he had just admitted that he may well have been the one who sent Blair to his political grave is not clear.

Blair deserved the whole sorry circus. He went on about the need to spread democracy and Western values among the benighted Middle Easterners. If he thinks that is what has happened in Iraq, he really is hopeless.

Blair always went on about how it would have been horrible if the UK had broken with Washington over Iraq. But France and Germany did, and nothing bad happened to them. Except that Paul Wolfowitz promised that they would pay.

As for Wolfowitz, Bush declined to support him as World Bank president any further and said he was sorry “it has come to this.”

And, I think Bush’s admission today would be reason enough for any future PMs of the UK to think twice before signing on to Washington’s foreign boondoggles.

So, anyway, since Bush admits he may have derailed the career of the longest serving Labour prime minister in decades, let’s ask him something else.

Are you responsible, Mr. President, for sending the Middle East up in flames?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Trumpism holds all Men are Created Unequal and most should be Denied Life, Liberty or the Pursuit of Happiness
  • Trump never saw a Wind Farm in China, but Beijing has half of all Installed Wind Capacity and will Eat America's Lunch in this Industry
  • Misreading and Misrepresenting Iran
  • Why China's Inaction on Palestine and Iran Weakens its Global Standing
  • The Trump Team's Purge of Pentagon Photos Raises Sinister Echoes from the Past

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved