Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, and Iran

by **heath7** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:19 am

Today, Tony Blair saw fit to release his Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, presumably because Mr. Blair needed to rearrange the chairs on the deck of his Hindenberg, which I don't doubt, but was Straw really a liability for Blair politically? As much as most Americans don't want to go to war with Iran, I imagine the British public is completely opposed, having been through Blair's even less popular Iraq war. So it'd seem good for Blair's cause that he had voice(s) out there speaking against any Iranian conflagration. Straw's pronouncements against escalating conflict with Iran have regularly been making their way stateside. What I hadn't heard, Blair had apparently been harping on Mr. Straw to stop being such a peacenik hippie. <a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,1768928,00.html">From The Guardian:</a> Mr Straw has said repeatedly that it is "inconceivable" that there will be a military strike on Iran and last month dismissed as "nuts" a report that George Bush was keeping on the table the option of using tactical nuclear weapons against Tehran's nuclear plants. But Mr Blair, who sees Iran as the world's biggest threat, does not agree with his former foreign secretary. The prime minister argues that, at the very least, nothing should be ruled out in order to keep Iran guessing. Downing Street phoned the Foreign Office several times to suggest Mr Straw stop going on the BBC Today programme and ruling it out so categorically. His fate was sealed when the White House called Mr Blair and asked why the foreign secretary kept saying these things. In any case, Mr Straw had boxed himself in on Iran to the extent that he would have had to resign if a military strike became a reality. ... The question remains, what of Margaret Beckett, Mr. Straw's successor? All I've been able to learn is that she is a most loyal Blairite, which does not bode well. Her stance on Iran seems to be non-existent, despite the Iran issue being one of the main focuses of the British Foreign Office. It definitely does not bode well that one of the few 'coalition of the willing' who have spoken out against this renewed warmongering, has now been effectively silenced.

by **heath7** » Sat May 06, 2006 4:44 am

In related news, dubya has declared <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/05/060505220719.qnjzncm8.html">World War III:</a>  US President George W. Bush said the September 11 revolt of passengers against their hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first blow of "World War III." In an interview with the financial news network CNBC, Bush said he had yet to see the recently released film of the uprising, a dramatic portrayal of events on the United Airlines plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field. But he said he agreed with the description of David Beamer, whose son Todd died in the crash, who in a Wall Street Journal commentary last month called it "our first successful counter-attack in our homeland in this new global war -- World War III". Bush said: "I believe that. I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III. "It was, it was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognize the danger and save lives," he said. Flight 93 crashed on the morning of September 11, 2001, killing the 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers, after passengers stormed the cockpit and battled the hijackers for control of the aircraft. The president has repeatedly praised the heroism of the passengers in fighting back and so launching the first blow of what he usually calls the "war on terror". In 2002, then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer explicitly declined to call the hunt for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda group and its followers "World War III." ...Mr. Bush knows exactly what he said, as partially evidenced by his never making such a statement before yesterday. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=heath7>heath7</A> at: 5/6/06 2:53 am

Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, and Iran

Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, and Iran

Re: Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, and Iran

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