As Iraq Descends Into Chaos, Blair Must Deliver a Message to the President

The Herald › April 10, 2004

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Summary

AMONG the very important people welcomed by Tony Blair to Downing Street last week was Colin Adams. Although the 82-year-old from south Wales has not thus far figured prominently in accounts of the Second World War, it is fair to say the course of history could have been very different without him. Mr Adams was one of the mighty couriers, the dispatch riders who brought reports from the battlefield to the likes of Downing Street and Fleet Street. It was not always good news, but the message, however unpalatable, always got through. It is a lesson in determination the prime minister should recall when next week he travels to Washington to meet president Bush. If ever there was a time for plain speaking between friends, this is it.

Mr Blair is scheduled to see Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, on Thursday before travelling to the White House. In between now and going to America he is having what Downing Street needlessly described as a "short" family holiday in Bermuda. Even there, anti-war protesters at the airport made sure he was not able to forget Iraq. It has become the all-consuming issue for premiers, protesters and the public the world over. With fighting continuing between coalition forces and both Sunni and Shia insurgents, the kidnap of foreigners - including a Briton - the death of another Briton working as a security guard, and the sending of hundreds more British troops, it might be asked whether Mr Blair should be on holiday at all and not at the despatch box in a recalled House of Commons. Perhaps it is better, given that the house returns in 10 days anyway, that he uses the time to collect his thoughts.

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As Iraq Descends Into Chaos, Blair Must Deliver a Message to the President

These cannot be anything other than pessimistic. As Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, acknowledged yesterday, "the lid of the pressure cooker has come off". He is right to argue that some of the ...

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