American View Of Mr Blair example essay topic

November 8, 2001 Bush and Blair Trade Praise at White House Love Fest By ELISABETH BUMILLERASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - No one ever said they would be soulmates, and they aren't. But today President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain stood side by side at the White House as unwavering allies joined by war, national self-interest and what their aides say is a growing personal chemistry. Although Mr. Blair is not nearly as close to Mr. Bush as he was to Bill Clinton, he has told his advisers - just as Mr. Clinton has told friends - that they are wrong to underestimate the president. ' We " ve got no better friend in the world than Great Britain,' Mr. Bush said this evening in a chummy news conference with Mr. Blair that offered no new revelations in the fight against terrorism but projected a powerful image of a united America and Britain. 'I've got no better person I would like to talk to about our mutual concerns than Tony Blair.

' Mr. Blair quickly returned the compliment, thanking Mr. Bush 'once again for his leadership and his strength at this time. ' The two stood behind identical lecterns, their hands clasped similarly in front of them, smiling or nodding agreeably at the other's words. Atone point Mr. Blair stepped in to finish a sentence of banter for Mr. Bush, who had told reporters that they were limited to asking one question of either leader. When a correspondent asked the president if the limit was an executive order - a reference to an order last week restricting the release of presidential papers - Mr. Bush began laughing as Mr. Blair cheerily chimed in: 'it looks like it.

' The prime minister had no discernible reaction when Mr. Bush suddenly said that the war in Afghanistan was 'not one of these Kodak moments. ' Mr. Blair, who has met with 54 world leaders since Sept. 11 and has been operating as a kind of supra- American secretary of state, arrived in Washington this afternoon for barely six hours of talks and dinner with Mr. Bush. He briefed the president on his meetings with leaders in the Middle East and Europe.

The two also discussed military strategy in Afghanistan, relief aid and postwar reconstruction, Mr. Blair said. ' It would surprise some that Mr. Blair could have as good a relationship with the new president as he had with Bill Clinton,' said Peter Mandelson, a former member of the British cabinet who was Mr. Blair's closest confidant during the Clinton administration. 'But it seems asif the surprising is happening. ' Advisers say that while Mr. Bush finds some European leaders, like President Jacques Chirac of France, formal and pompous, he is comfortable around Mr. Blair, who has been careful, his advisers say, to be low- key and casual around an American president who is still on a learning curve on foreign policy. Mr. Blair has in turn described Mr. Bush as a well-briefed, gracious and receptive listener, who this week heeded Mr. Blair's advice to expand the military coalition of European nations fighting the Taliban. When Mr. Blair was asked at the news conference about whether the current air campaign was sufficient to win the war in Afghanistan, he said, 'I think people know that the strategy has to encompass more than airstrikes alone.

' He said that the conflict was young and would be waged on many levels. He also addressed efforts at peace in the Middle East, saying at the news conference today that 'even though it is not conditional in any sense, of course we want to see progress in the Middle East. ' World leader to world leader, Mr. Blair has the ability to deliver unvarnished news to Mr. Bush, as in his reports to the president on his meetings in the Middle East and Europe. ' That report and that delivery is something that Bush couldn't get from a thousand intelligence reports or a lot of face time with his secretary of state,' said a former senior American diplomat. 'That's why Blair is useful. He speaks to the Saudi leader and the guy tells him what he wouldn't tell anybody else in a one-on-one session.

And then Blair talks to Bush. There are no filters. It's the purest form of mega-diplomacy. ' Advisers to both men said that they now talked several times a week, and that their aides talked daily. 'They " ve always talked quite a bit,' a senior administration official said last night of the two leaders, 'but not at this level of intensity.

You " re in a war together. ' Not surprisingly, Mr. Blair also talks frequently to Mr. Clinton, who spent the last weekend in September with Mr. Blair at Cheques, the prime minister's official country retreat. The American view of Mr. Blair has not always been shared in Britain, where the prime minister is described in some newspapers and commentary as 'Bush's poodle,' who is doing much of the hard work of coalition building and diplomacy for the United States. It was Mr. Blair, not Mr. Bush, who released the white paper detailing the case against Osama bin Laden, and it is Mr. Blair who has traveled far more extensively since Sept. 11 - 40,000 miles - than Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. It was also Mr. Blair who had dinner with Mr. Bush and then rode with him up to Capitol Hill before the president's address on Sept.

21 to joint session of Congress. Perhaps most important, it was Mr. Blair who was the first ally to condemn the Sept. 11 attacks, saying emotionally that Britain stood 'full square alongside the U.S. ' and then offering support without conditions. That support, British and American officials say, ensured that Mr. Blair would have an important voice in Mr. Bush's White House. 'He right away picked up history and ran with it,' said Raymond G.H. Seitz, the United States ambassador in London from 1991 to 1994, who is now an executive at Lehman Brothers in London.

'There's something in the American psyche that says, 'Well, if the British are there, it " sO.K. ' It's good to have a little company. ' Tonight at the White House, Mr. Bush acknowledged Mr. Blair's role in his presidency and his life. 'The prime minister, every time I've talked to him, which is a lot, is constantly talking about how we make sure that we fulfill the mission,' Mr. Bush said. He concluded that 'he's got a clear vision' and 'he is a strong friend. ' The two had dinner, and then Mr. Blair immediately returned to London, where he was to meet on Thursday with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information.