Blair and The Middle East

It is the end of an era in Britain as the former Prime Minister stepped down yesterday to give way for the less-than-charismatic Gordon Brown. I will miss good ol' Tony. The wannabe rocker turned politician has been somewhat of an inspiration to me. I especially enjoyed it when Bush and himself appeared together for debriefs to the press. Blair - the intellectual, the verbose and the voice of reason; alongside Bush - the guy next door, texas swaggermonger and the voice of ideology.

In Blair's new role, he considers being a special envoy of the Quartet (four nations who gave birth to the 'road map' for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). The last special envoy left because of frustration in May 2006. My opinions of Blair in this new role are quite mixed. Blair has the label of being a Washington lackey after his role in the Iraq war. Arabs will not be charmed. He is still pro-west and the Quartet lacks an Arab entitiy (e.g. the Arab Leaugue)

However I hope in this role, Blair can bring in more public awareness and diplomatic solutions to the issue. The Middle East is clearly going through hell. Israel-Palestine, Lebannon and Iraq. Blair cannot and sould not be a puppet in the hands of the administration in Washington - he's too good for that.

First Post

This is my first blog post ever. I hope that this blog will be an avenue to express my views and thoughts on the happenings in the world today. Discussion topics will include politics, media coverage and maybe the occasional daily activity. I am an Indian citizen who grew up in the Middle East and am now studying in the USA. I am not a clever or witty writer so please bear with me.