{"id":734,"date":"2004-04-18T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2004-04-18T07:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/"},"modified":"2004-04-18T07:50:00","modified_gmt":"2004-04-18T07:50:00","slug":"the-special-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"The special relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Bush and Blair relationship is a fascinating one, The Telegraph reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018His friendship with Clinton was obvious and predictable,\u2019 one Cabinet minister told me recently, \u2018but his alliance with Bush is a much deeper, stranger thing. It is a clue to what Tony is all about these days.\u2019 If the novice Blair needed to bask in the electoral magic of Bill, the older, weather-beaten Blair craves the moral certainty of Dubya.<\/p>\n

In private, Mr Blair readily admits that he has much in common with the American neo-conservatives who have done so much to influence the foreign policy of the Bush White House. He shares with them a belief that the West has a mission to encourage the spread of democratic values, free markets and basic liberties. To borrow the words used by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917, the Prime Minister wants to make the world \u2018safe for democracy\u2019\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n

It suits those who despise Mr Bush and respect Mr Blair to believe that the Prime Minister is only going along with the President because he thinks that he has to. But \u2013 as Mr Blair keeps trying to tell people \u2013 he means what he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worse than you think,\u201d he told The Guardian\u2019s Jackie Ashley on the eve of war. \u201cI believe in it. I am truly committed to dealing with this irrespective of the position of America. If the Americans were not doing this, I would be pressing for them to do so.\u201d Bob Woodward\u2019s new book on the Iraq conflict alleges that the President privately offered his friend the option of backing out of the war. But the Prime Minister was having none of it.<\/p>\n

No wonder Mr Bush thinks Mr Blair is a \u201cstand-up kinda guy\u201d. And no wonder he likes the President \u2013 a man who still trusts him as the British electorate once did, so long ago. When the two men first met in February 2001, they feared that they might have nothing in common except the toothpaste they used. These days, it must sometimes seem to each of them that they have little in common with anyone else. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The Bush and Blair relationship is a fascinating one, The Telegraph reports: \u201c\u2018His friendship with Clinton was obvious and predictable,\u2019 one Cabinet minister told me recently, \u2018but his alliance with Bush is a much deeper, stranger thing. It is a clue to what Tony is all about these days.\u2019 If the novice Blair needed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\nThe special relationship<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Bush and Blair relationship is a fascinating one, The Telegraph reports: "'His friendship with Clinton was obvious and predictable,' one Cabinet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The special relationship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Bush and Blair relationship is a fascinating one, The Telegraph reports: "'His friendship with Clinton was obvious and predictable,' one Cabinet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-04-18T07:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adrianwarnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/\",\"name\":\"The special relationship\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2004-04-18T07:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2004-04-18T07:50:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\"},\"description\":\"The Bush and Blair relationship is a fascinating one, The Telegraph reports: \\\"'His friendship with Clinton was obvious and predictable,' one Cabinet\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2004\/04\/the-special-relationship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The special relationship\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"description\":\"Patheos Evangelical\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adrian Warnock\"},\"description\":\"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. 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