British overtures to Iran set allies at odds

British officials in Iraq have all but ignored President George Bush's plan to foster a new democracy in the country in favour of their own agenda, according to an American former official in Baghdad's interim government.

His comments mark the first time an official has publicly let the mask of co-operation between the White House and Whitehall slip.

They also highlight the difficulties facing Tony Blair at his meeting with Mr Bush tomorrow when the two leaders will try to plot the transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, which is due in 11 weeks.

Michael Rubin, who resigned from the Pentagon 10 days ago after returning from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad, gave a stark account of fundamental divisions between British and American officials over how to run Iraq.

He suggested that British officials clearly had little interest in pursuing the White House vision of a democratic Iraq, a keystone of its foreign policy, and were too "soft" in confronting dissent.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/14/1081838801664.html

Break out the Freedom Muffins! Blair wandered out of the asylum!

"nervous" about what Iraq is doing to his and the UK's reputation...and he's been urged to "recalibrate" the relationship with the US.....

Looks like the "recalibration" has been going on for awhile.....

Tough luck, Georgie....


1//The Independent, UK 14 April 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=511264



SUPPORT FOR BUSH ‘HAS HARMED UK’S REPUTATION’

By Ben Russell and Andrew Grice



Tony Blair was urged yesterday to put some distance between Britain and the Bush administration and not to make his alliance with the US President the cornerstone of British foreign policy.



Senior Labour MPs expressed concern at Mr Blair's close relationship with George Bush as he prepared to fly to Washington tomorrow for talks that will be overshadowed by the crisis in Iraq. In a sign of Mr Blair's nervousness, Downing Street confirmed that he would not receive the Congressional Medal of Honour he was awarded nearly a year ago, insisting it was not yet ready.



Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, told The Independent yesterday that Mr Blair should "recalibrate" his relations with the White House. He said: "Tony Blair's original aim as Prime Minister was that Britain can sit astride a transatlantic relationship as well as a European relationship. That, however, has become warped beyond recognition by the unilateral action in Iraq."



Mr Blair suffered a further rebuff as an influential think tank said that British and US foreign policy was preventing Britain from halting human rights abuses around the world.



In a report out today, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warned that the war in Iraq and the detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay limited Britain's ability to influence states with poor human rights records.



(MORE)

A report in the Guardian had the British implying that the U.S. military was treating the Iraqis as "lesser people" (they used a German term), whose lives didn't matter that much. It looks like there may be a falling out, although it may all be staged to give Blair a little political distance from Bush.

piss off 120,000,000 Shias by being too heavy handed in its pursuit of Sadr in the holy city of Najaf.

The British are more gently occupying the south of Iraq where Najaf is so they've reached out to Iranian Shias to come in and help negotiations to prevent blowing the whole region up.

This has pissed off the US neocons at the Heritage Foundation because they consider Iran to be trying to make things hard for the US occupation.

Consider the US military lighting a match to find a rebel hiding in a country made out of gunpowder. The British are trying to blow out that stupid match.

This is a scary article detailing how Bremer has no control over the US military and the British are appalled at its recklessness:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=511587