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.
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