La “grotesque relationships” GW-Blair débattue comme un cas de lavage régulier du cerveau de la marionnette

Désormais, les relations entre Blair et son ami à la Maison-Blanche sont présentées régulièrement comme une sorte de cas-clinique de lavage régulier du cerveau du Britannique par l’Américain. C’est le cas avec le titre de The Independent de ce matin. Blair y est décrit comme réduit à tenter de prouver qu’il a de l’influence, sans le moindre succès évidemment puisque réduit également à un cerveau revu en permanence par GW Bush, perçu en la circonstance comme une sorte de Faust d’occasion : «‘Brainwashed’ Blair losing battle to prove his influence».

Blair revient évidemment (bis) bredouille de son voyage au Moyen-Orient. Lequel voyage a d’ailleurs été réduit à néant dès le départ par l’habituel coup de couteau dans le dos de GW : «As Tony Blair doggedly toured Israel and the Palestinian Authority yesterday, it was said that his efforts had been undermined by events in Washington. Informed sources there suggested that George W. Bush was poised to reject the key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, increasing rather than decreasing US troop numbers in Iraq and declining to make the revival of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process the centrepiece of his broader regional strategy.» (Selon The Times du 19 décembre.)

A son retour à Londres, Blair est attendu par des paroles peu amènes. On ne prend plus de gants. Même un vice-président irakien, pourtant autre marionnette lui-même on dirait “par fonction”, se permet des déclarations publiques qui, si elles sont bien intentionnées, apparaissent comme assez méprisantes.

»The Prime Minister returned yesterday from his seven-nation visit to the Middle East, apparently without achieving any significant breakthrough in the peace process. But British officials said that he had found a desire to make progress among Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and insisted that he had never expected to find a magic solution. They said his tour should be judged over the longer term rather than immediately.

»The trip has been overshadowed by a growing perception that Mr Blair's relationship with President Bush is very much a “one-way street” in which Britain gets very little in return for his unwavering public backing for Washington. Even some Blairites are starting to question the Prime Minister's stance. They are appalled that President Bush has refused to honour his 2004 promise to expend “capital” on the Middle East peace process during his second term. “He doesn't cut Tony much slack,” one Blair aide said yesterday.

»For someone who is often described as a “lucky” politician, cabinet ministers believe that Mr Blair was extremely unlucky to have President Bush in the White House for the past six years.

»Tareq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi Vice-President, claimed that Mr Blair was ready about three months ago to back a timetable for withdrawing allied forces from Iraq, but was “brainwashed” into changing his mind during his recent talks with President Bush in Washington. He told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York: “It is quite unfortunate that your President made a sort of blackmail out of Mr Blair.”

»Later he told the BBC: “I got the impression that he was much willing, and interested in fact, to raise this subject maybe for the first time with Mr Bush.

»“I think he discovered that Mr Bush is still adamant that he's not going to declare some sort of timetable for withdrawal to avoid passing wrong messages to terrorism.”»

Mis en ligne le 21 décembre 2006 à 05H04