if Tony Chamberlain Blair doesn't have the stones for it, then we will have to go it alone.

....I do believe that overall the world-view of the USA is preferable to the European (and Arabic) model that is little more than the appeasement of a madman such as Saddam

...the US is trying to export world stability....I firmly believe there's on overarching altruism that much of the world doesn't appreciate


If you truly value "Western" democracy, TEd, then you have to accept that the people of Europe - including the UK in this instance - are making their own decision, which their leaders are (more or less) obliged to follow. That decision is quite clearly against war on Saddam at present, and it is very strongly against the US stepping in to "defend our interests" (meaning to defend what it sees as our interests, meaning its interests).

This is very straightforward and understandable if you put the boot on the other foot. Would you accept the UK dictating US interests, who your enemies and friends are, what is civilized behaviour, what is fair resistance to oppression and what is terrorism? Would you accept the UK taking its troops into parts of the US, assassinating supposed terrorists and destroying towns it assured you supported terrorist activities? I would hope you would have "the stones" to soundly resist such cultural imperialism [I can't think of a better way of phrasing it] and would make up your own mind about what to do next.

True global security is never going to be achieved by anybody pushing their viewpoint whilst dismissing those of other people or countries as irrelevant or somehow unrepresentative. And I say again, the US needs all the friends it can get.

And incidentally, I think it's very questionable for you to compare the current situation with the onset of WWII. Saddam isn't poised to invade anywhere - quite the opposite. Comparisons with the Cold War would be more apt, as there was a situation where a dictatorial government, hostile to the West, had definite control over weapons of mass destruction.

And wasn't the USSR thought of as the "Eastern Bloc" in those days?

Tout ca change again:
http://www.sting.com/discography/lyrics/lyrussia.html