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Cook warns Blair to distance himself from Bush
IRNA -- Former British cabinet minister Robin Cook Wednesday warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that he must distance himself from US President George W. Bush if the UK is to be a major European power. "If the prime minister wants to restore Britain's status as a major European player he must now accept that moving closer to Europe requires, by definition, putting more distance between Britain and Bush," Cook said. Good advice, and worth every penny... Blair's relationship with the US president had made Britain the "odd one out," with France and Germany now the dominant forces in the European Union, he said in an article for the New Statesman magazine. "Labour's objective on taking office in 1997 was to make Britain a partner of equal importance in a triangle He says that like it's a bad thing... Cook warned that the prime minister was wrong to have tried to establish the same warm friendship with Bush as he enjoyed with former US President Bill Clinton and said he must decide whether it is more important for the UK to be close to the US or Europe. I'd call that an easy choice, but hey, it's your country... "The fundamental foreign policy dilemma for Britain is not Iraq, it is not even Europe, it is what kind of relationship we can maintain with the US while it is under neo-conservative management," he said. Yes! Damn those Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-16 |
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