British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been George W. Bush's one and only reliable international ally. He backed Bush on war in Iraq, at great political risk to himself, and has been a strong ally in the "war on terror." However, with his reelection now successfully concluded (although with a reduced margin in Parliament for his Labor Party), Blair is showing that he is not just President Bush's "poodle", as many people have accused.At the just concluded G8 Summit of major industrialized nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, for example, Blair pushed hard on two issues not normally associated with conservative U.S. Republicans: helping Africa and taking action on global warming. Thanks in large part to Blair, leaders at the summit agreed to increase aid to Africa by $50 billion, while writing off $40 billion in debt to 18 of the world's poorest nations, mainly in Africa. Score one for Tony Blair.
Also thanks to Blair, global warming is squarely back on the table, despite the Bush Administration's unending efforts to pretend it doesn't exist. In the summit's final communique, the G8 recognized the importance of "energy conservation and efficiency" and stated:
All of us agreed that climate change is happening now, that human activity is contributing to it, and that it could affect every part of the globe....We will take measures to develop markets for clean energy technologies, to increase their availability in developing countries, and to help vulnerable communities adapt to the impact of climate change.
This may not seem like a big deal, but it's a major step forward for President Bush to even acknowledge global warming as a signficant problem caused by human activities. Score another for Tony Blair.
Now, following the horrific, despicable terrorist attacks in London the other day, Blair has broken with the Bush Administration once again, this time on the "root causes of terrorism." Here's what the Prime Minister has to say on the subject:
I think this type of terrorism has very deep roots. As well as dealing with the consequences of this -- trying to protect ourselves as much as any civil society can -- you have to try to pull it up by its roots.
[...]
Ultimately what we now know, if we didn't before, is that where there is extremism, fanaticism or acute and appalling forms of poverty in one continent, the consequences no longer stay fixed in that continent, they spread to the rest of the world.
Thank you, Tony Blair, for courageously stating the truth. Unfortunately, here in the United States, any discussion of "root causes" of terror has been practically verboten since 9/11. Just to mention the subject has been to subject onceself to criticism as being part of the "blame America" crowd. That, of course, is absurd. Recognizing and FIGHTING root causes of terror is one way, inter alia, to DEFEND America. Another way, of course, is military action, and here I know what I differ from some on the far left of the political spectrum. However, I also differ from those on the far-right who believe that military force is the ONLY answer to the terrorism threat. That, of course, is utterly ridiculous. As Blair said, terrorism has deep roots, not all of which are amenable to a military solution. That is obvious to most of us in the middle of the poltical spectrum, even if it is not to the far right (and to the Bush Administration) in this country
All this talk makes the right-wing uncomfortable, of course. As I wrote nearly two years ago:
...root causes don't match the Bush worldview because they are complicated and "gray," and that's just not the way Bush or the right wing thinks. On the contrary, Bush and his "Christian Right" allies tend to see things in simplistic and simple-minded black and white, even Apocalyptic, terms. To these people, root causes are liberal, secular, over-intellectualized, America-hating garbage. And politically they are a threat, because if root causes exist, then 9/11 and the "war on terrorism" cease to fit into the Bush Administration's simplistic good and evil paradigm.[...]
Worst of all, if there are root causes of terrorism, and certain U.S. policies contribute to them, the United States would need to reexamine, and perhaps adjust some of its behavior patterns. For instance, the United States might consider cutting its support for corrupt dictatorships around the world, reducing its oil imports from places like Saudi Arabia, changing its policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict, even re-examining the U.S- and Western-dominated, globalized, profoundly unequal world economic system.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, even suggesting such things could easily get one branded as a "traitor" by extreme right-wingers like Ann Coulter and Jerry Falwell. These were the people, remember, who said that we should "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity" (Coulter), and who blamed "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" for 9/11 (Falwell).
I concluded my article as follows. These words are just as true today as they were in September 2003. Thanks to Tony Blair for reminding us of that just two days after his own country was attacked by terrorists.
In short, the 9/11 attacks, while in no way morally justifiable, are very much explainable upon careful reflection and study, as the conference in New York City this week proves. In spite of the Bush Administration's desperate denials and delusions, there really are root causes of terrorism, there really are more shades of gray than the right wing's infantile black and white worldview allows, and there really are some problems that can't be solved with a few guided missiles and B-1 bombers.Unfortunately, the world after 9/11 remains a deeply unhealthy place, with America -- the sole superpower -- still not fully grasping its own predicament. This situation is very unfortunate, because the root causes of terrorism are not going to get any better on their own, and if not addressed forcefully will pose a continuing threat to U.S. national security.