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I Would Prefer A Counter-Reformation of Strategy

Tony Blair called for a fundamental reappraisal of British and US foreign policy yesterday, admitting that excessive emphasis on military power and failure to address the Palestinian issue had left the west losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East. In a speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, the […]

Tony Blair called for a fundamental reappraisal of British and US foreign policy yesterday, admitting that excessive emphasis on military power and failure to address the Palestinian issue had left the west losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East.

In a speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, the prime minister admitted “we are far from persuading those we need to persuade” that western values were even-handed, fair and just in their application. He said there was no point disguising the damage being done to the cause of peace in the Middle East by the war on the Lebanese border, but suggested that when the war finally ended “we must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us”. ~The Guardian

Via Kevin Drum

Seriously, who writes Blair’s speeches?  “Renaissance of our strategy”?  What Blair seems to want to say is a complete revision or reformulation or rethinking or indeed reappraisal, as the Guardian translates for us, since a renaissance (rebirth) will simply revive something that has been neglected or dead for a long time.  If the old strategy has achieved so little, if it has fallen into disrepair, why should we want it to be born anew?

And what will Mr. Blair’s reborn strategy involve?  Apparently, an “alliance of moderation” that “paints a different future,” perhaps backed up by a non-aggression pact with temperance that sketches a better tomorrow and an arms reduction treaty with fortitude that traces the outlines of a brand new day.  But fear not–we will not appease virtue or receive the ambassador from justice, and on no account will we open negotiations with apragmosyne (minding our own business)!  That would clearly be wrong.

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