Iraqis won't miss 'Bush lackey Blair'

[cal04]

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair may hope to be remembered as a champion of Iraq's fight against dictatorship, but when his expected resignation comes next week few war-weary Iraqis will regret his departure.

Four years after British forces joined a far larger US invasion force in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, Iraq is mired in sectarian strife and insurgent violence, and Mr Blair is seen here as little more than a White House lackey.

“Blair is the son of America,” declared Mahmud al-Bajari, 56, a professor of economics at the University of Basra, the southern Iraqi city that has been the focus of British peacekeeping and reconstruction since the 2003 invasion.

“He brought disaster and sectarianism to Basra using a policy of divide and rule,” he said, echoing a common Iraqi tendency to blame the foreign invasion for triggering conflict between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21675501-1702,00.html

[dave_p]

1. Here, there & everywhere

"Mr Blair is seen here as little more than a White House lackey"

"Here"? Brits (even of his own party) see him pretty much the same way. I guess that makes him another uniter.