Tony Blair: Where Have You Been, Old Chap?

In what can only be viewed as a slap at The Decider, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has removed his head from George Bush's ass and declared that a new policy is needed to combat Islamic terrorism.

Blair's speech before World Affairs Council in Los Angeles was a long overdue concession that the Bush administration view that terrorism exists in a vacuum is morally and intellectually bankrupt. It was delivered literally hours after the embattled PM met with the president at the White House, where they exchanged long looks over the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and mouthed platitudes but did nothing in the service of trying to broker a ceasefire.

The money quotes from Blair's speech:

We will continue to do all we can to halt the hostilities. But once that has happened, we must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us. There is an arc of extremism now stretching across the Middle East and touching, with increasing definition, countries far outside that region. To defeat it will need an alliance of moderation, that paints a different future in which Muslim, Jew and Christian; Arab and Western; wealthy and developing nations can make progress in peace and harmony with each other. My argument to you today is this: we will not win the battle against this global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force, unless we show we are even-handed, fair and just in our application of those values to the world . . .

Unless we re-appraise our strategy, unless we revitalise the broader global agenda on poverty, climate change, trade, and in respect of the Middle East, bend every sinew of our will to making peace between Israel and Palestine, we will not win. And this is a battle we must win.

What is happening today out in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and beyond is an elemental struggle about the values that will shape our future.

It is in part a struggle between what I will call Reactionary Islam and Moderate, Mainstream Islam. But its implications go far wider. We are fighting a war, but not just against terrorism but about how the world should govern itself in the early 21st century, about global values . . .

We only win people to [our] positions if our policy is not just about interests but about values, not just about what is necessary but about what is right.

Which brings me to my final reflection about U.S. policy. My advice is: always be in the lead, always at the forefront, always engaged in building alliances, in reaching out, in showing that whereas unilateral action can never be ruled out, it is not the preference.

A rather brilliant summary of what the Bush administration has not done, no?

Some commentators are comparing the speech to Winston Churchill's famous 1946 "Iron Curtain" address in Fulton, Missouri.

I say not so fast there, pundits. It was only a bunch of words, albeit eloquent ones.

Blair's future actions are what will matter.