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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Why Tony did it: the growing consensus



"The money which any modern British Prime Minister earns on retirement will come in large measure from the U.S.- from book sales, speeches and 'jobs' at banks. If Tony Blair had not stood shoulder to shoulder with George Bush, would he be such hot property in the U.S.? Of course not. Be assured that I write largely as a pro-American. But the next time we team up with Uncle Sam on a perilous international adventure, we want to make sure the Government is acting with only this country's best interests in mind. As I look at Tony Blair lining his pockets at a preposterous rate, I do not believe we can be certain that this was the case when he was prime minister."
writes Stephen Glover, in today's Daily Mail.

The author of this blog has never had any doubts as to the main reason why Tony Blair took Britain to war. It's nice to see that other commentators are coming to the same conclusion.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

By the same token, the likes of Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein have made millions through the sale of their books attacking capitalism.

So I look forward to your attacks on their mercenary motives in the very near future.

Karl Naylor said...

Tony Blair is rather like one of those televangelists who likes to believe that God made him rich and that 'Providence' favours him.

The only reason Glover moans about Blair is because the Daily Mail likes to vilify Blair without bothering to consider the fact that the former PM is far more ideologically obsessed with Britain being remodelled according to the US system than even the neoliberal Tories were.

Blair was sincere in believing that the invasion of Iraq was morally justified and trying the ascribe financial motives retrospectively is just one way of chickening out of the real issue-that Britain is far too close to the USA and the New Conservatives are no less so.

Glover is just taking pot shots at Blair without looking at the real problem. That the USA is governed by ideological fanatics, greedy and cynical profiteers, and complete idiots.

There is no 'special relationship' and Britain should stand up to the USA rather than try to emulate it uncritically or ,as apologists for the Soviet Union like Milne do, see every form of 'resistance' against the USA as necessarily a result of it being the real evil.

Despite being a moderate voice on CiF, Milne succeeded in getting me banned again for raising his hypocrisy in condemning Imperialism whilst belonging to the Straight Left CPGB faction that supported the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

An extended version of what I wrote on Milne will appear on Goulash and Guardianistas tomorrow.

I will not be bowed or silenced in my struggle to dissect the political evil behind all fanatical creeds and 'armed doctrines' as Burke called them whether they belong nominally to the left or right.

Neil Clark said...

Hi Montag: any evidence that Chomsky and Klein have made 'millions'?

Karl: I think you make a lot of good points, but you are wrong to attack Seumas. He is a very honest, principled writer and a strong opponent of the neocon agenda. You seem to be saying 'the neocnos and the anti neocons are just as bad as each other': that's absurd, when you consider the amount of people killed by neocon instigated wars of aggression. And when you add in to the equation that individual neocons have actually benefited financially from the wars they do so much to bring about, it makes them even more depraved.

Minden jot!
Neil

Anonymous said...

any evidence that Chomsky and Klein have made 'millions'?

Oh really, Neil. You really do display your prejudices when you pretend to know all about the financial status of neo-cons but pretend ignorance about the deep pockets of the heroes of the Left.

Chomsky is well-known to be a multi-millionaire who condemns intellectual property rights owned by the likes of Big Pharma yet insists on being paid for every use of the speeches and other material you can donwnload from his website. He's also infamous for condemning the tax policies of the United States while simultaneously taking advantage of them "in the interests of his grandchildren."

As for Klein, her books have sold innumerable copies, so if she isn't a multi-millionaire by now, it just goes to show that beauty and brains are seldom found in the same packaging.