Monday, January 15, 2007

UK Official: We Can't Beat Terror by Military Action Alone



The following is a quote from one of Gordon Brown's closest allies. [see: The Independent]. Gordon Brown is Great Britain's most likely successor to PM Tony Blair. His close ally, Ed Balls, is the economic secretary to the Treasury. It is said that his comments are seen as a foretaste of Gordon Brown's "approach to the Middle East after he becomes Prime Minister and as a side-swipe at Tony Blair's proximity to the President George Bush since September 11." Ed Balls told the BBC's The World This Weekend:
"... you can't fight against Islamic extremism simply by security. We have got to win the battle of hearts and minds and persuade people in communities in Britain and around the world that values of fairness, stability and opportunity and turning away from extremism is the way to go."
The likely future British PM seems to be positioning himself wisely toward the U.S. Democrats' position and against escalation of violence, or what's been coined as The McCain Doctrine on Iraq. Brown's shift toward U.S. Democrats is a wise move after Tony Blair's closeness to George W. Bush on Iraq had cost Blair dearly, from a political standpoint. U.S. Democrats are resisting the McCain Doctrine and insisting that, unless a political resolution and reconciliation is reached in Iraq, there will never be a military solution that would bring about any situation that even resembled a victory in that nation.

6 comments:

Larry said...

Bush doesn't care whether his escalation will fail or not. He wantnts war and all the profits that come with it.

Bush's words rang to his tue self on 60 Minutes when he said he doesn't care what Congress says, and he doesn't care about the public not supporting him, he is still going on with his war.

TomCat said...

I agree with Larry, and I'm pleased to see that Brown is moving away from Bush's 'bring em on' diplomacy. A careful examination of history reveals that nations in that part of the world have just cause for grievances, and the best way to diffuse that is to demonstrate that we are willing to learn from our mistakes.

Larry said...

Bush didn't even admit he made a mistake on his "surge" speech. He merely said mistakes were and and the responsibility rests with him.

It sounded to me like he was saying someone else messed up, but out of his "humbleness" he would claim responsibility.

Jude Nagurney Camwell said...

...and Bush bombed to boot. The guy actually turned more people "off" than "on" with his flatly delivered escalation speech.

TomCat said...

Well Jude, it was so bad that there is a rumor that after the speech, he discovered that Barney had mistaken him for a fire hydrant. :-)

Jude Nagurney Camwell said...

Bwahahahaha!