Sorry to disagree, Cap’n, but I think he DOES ‘get it.’
He DID buck a lot of opposition to stand with Bush on Iraq.
And yes, he’s a crackerjack speaker. You have to be, to stand up in Commons and get bombarded with hostile questions every day.
The British Empire was in the Middle East for what, 200 years? They only left in the 1950s. One has to think that their collective experience should count for something.
And is it not true that the current management of the US forces is following much the same policies that the Brits were already doing down by Basra?
Naw, much as I am glad that I live far upwind of Yale, I do not disparage Tony Blair, even if he was Labour’s man.
I am talking about his take on the religion of Islam itslelf. Pres. Bush, like Blair also thinks Islam is a religion of peace. They couldn't be more wrong. All you have to do is read the Koran and Hadiths to find out what the religion should be about.
Here is Blair's take on Islam.;
A quote from Tony Blair in Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007
To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. The Koran is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and far ahead of its time in attitudes toward marriage, women, and governance. Under its guidance, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands were breathtaking. Over centuries, Islam founded an empire and led the world in discovery, art, and culture. The standard-bearers of tolerance in the early Middle Ages were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian ones.