As FWers will know, I think that Bush is a coward. He is afraid of sacking his senior staff, such as his last Treasury Secretary, face-to-face. (However, to be kinder to Bush, it's possibly embarrassment rather than cowardice. He just hasn't the language or understanding to be able to explain why he [that is, the group behind him] is sacking the staff member [or even appointed him in the first place!]. I wouldn't mind betting that Bush has never spoken personally to N. Greg Mankiw, his new Economic Advisor, when he was appointed last week. Bush is so simple-minded he wouldn't know what to say to an intellectual like Mankiw, even by way of casual conversation, never mind economics-talk.)
We are shortly going to see whether Tony Blair has any courage, as a consequence of Claire Short's threatened resignation. Claire Short has expressed herself more forcibly than any Minister before her. She has said that Blair has been "extraordinarily reckless". Her main argument is that international law, fragile though it is, must be repsected. Now in any ordinary circumstance (if a threatened Ministerial resignation can ever be called "ordinary"!), Blair's immediate response should be to sack her immediately and not give her the satisfaction of resigning. But No! Oh no! He hasn't done so. It is said that Blair is "surprised" by Short's decision (which, if true, would make Blair to be totally stupid, which he's not) but that, at the moment, he has no response, because he is "so totally focussed" on getting international support for the new UN resolution. My guess is that Blair can't do anything about Claire Short just for the moment (that is, during today and tomorrow) because he can't judge whether her threatened resignation will set in train further Ministerial threats. He just doesn't know how far or how deep feelings are in his Cabinet. And nor does anybody else just at the moment because the only way of knowing this is when it's publicly announced. Blair will probably go as far and a speedily as he can in trying to convince people that a second UN resolution will be attainable. But if he doesn't succeed during today or tomorrow, then the game is up. Blair will have to say whether he's prepared to go to war without a second resolution. He's almost said that so far. He hasn't quite said so in black and white terms. He'll have to find some courage in the next day or two in deciding whether he, along with Bush, is going to wreck the United Nations. Claire Short resignation (or not, as the case may be) will take care of itself. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
