It sounds like Washington will be more isolated than ever when Tony Blair leaves the scene:
Gordon Brown vowed yesterday to take on President George W Bush and the Americans over foreign policy as he spelt out plans to break from Tony Blair’s approach to the “war on terror”.
The Chancellor, who is on course to succeed Mr Blair as Prime Minister this summer, made clear he wanted to place Britain’s national interest above the special relationship with Washington.
Essentially, it sounds as if Great Britain is going to be like the U.S. Congress and enter into an era of “oversight” — in which White House decisions are examined before it’s decided to go along with them. On one hand, it means an era of intense skepticism. On the other, it is manageable if the White House has the political skills — and the arguments — to prevail. MORE:
Mr Brown also forced Mr Blair, his long-term rival, to authorise No 10 to issue its first statement denouncing the bungled execution of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Blair had declined to make any public comment after video footage emerged of the former Iraqi dictator being harangued by Shia guards as he waited on the scaffold.
But after Mr Brown told BBC1’s Sunday AM that No 10 was obliged to issue a statement, Mr Blair rapidly let it be known that he thought the handling of the execution was “unacceptable”.
In other words, a word passed Blair’s lips that has not yet passed White House spokesman Tony Snow’s…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.