Blair a casualty of U.K. support for Iraq war

President Bush’s state visit to the United Kingdom Nov. 18-21 will spotlight his close relationship with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the two leaders’ collaboration over the Iraq war.

However, the visit comes as Mr. Blair faces pressure at home and in Europe to distance himself from the Bush administration, according to analysts. This is because he is perceived there as having received little in return for his loyalty to the United States and British participation in the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

According to Peter Riddell, political columnist and assistant editor of the London Times, unless Mr. Blair works harder to assert British interests when dealing with the United States, he risks “being ignored in much of Europe and taken for granted in Washington.”

Both President Bush and Mr. Blair have lost public support as a result of their handling of the war and its aftermath, but Mr. Blair, analysts point out, has suffered much more in this regard than has Mr. Bush.

The British public and Mr. Blair’s Labor party strongly opposed the war. Many people in Britain feel the prime minister misled them into war over Iraq on the basis of faulty, misinterpreted, or exaggerated intelligence.

The failure so far to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and difficulties encountered during the postwar stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq, such as frequent terrorist attacks, have worsened Mr. Blair’s domestic situation.

Two inquiries

In July, a top British biological weapons expert, David Kelly, committed suicide. Mr. Kelly was the source for a controversial report by the British Broadcasting Corp. alleging that the Blair government had exaggerated the threat of Iraqi weapons.

The British government’s pre-war intelligence and actions have come under the scrutiny of two investigations. One was a parliamentary inquiry that largely exonerated the government. The second, led by Lord Hutton of Bresagh, is an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Kelly; it is expected to issue a report in January.

The Iraq war has also created tensions in the historically close Anglo-American relationship.

Initially, these focused on whether British and American intelligence services reached the same conclusions regarding Iraq’s weapons program before the war, and what information the two countries shared with each other.

In addition, since the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1, Mr. Blair has, like many leaders, called for the United Nations to play a larger political role in the reconstruction of Iraq than the Bush administration has been willing to give it.

Other current tensions between the United States and Britain include Bush administration concerns about British diplomatic overtures toward Iran and Syria, and British government concerns about the status of British “enemy combatant” detainees in a U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Lost political capital

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