American Politics Journal

The View from Europe
Real Leadership
By Nicola Mitchell

Nov. 6, 2001 - LONDON (APJP) -- This past week has seen Tony Blair embark on yet another whirlwind diplomatic mission. He has travelled to Damascus, Riyadh, Amman, Jerusalem and the Gaza trip, and for all his trouble has received a number of humiliatingly public rebuttals from all sides.

But what I really want to know is while the British prime minister is running around the world to shore up support for the war on terror, what the hell is Bush doing?

Don’t get me wrong. I was one of the first to note his absence in New York, but from what I can see, he is rather absent on the world stage as well. I mean, the man issues an ultimatum to the entire world saying, “You’re either with us or against us” -- and then makes no effort to build on the support people have given.

The extent of his support building effort has been a brief trip down the street to the Pentagon, a better late than never venture to New York, a short jaunt to China and then pitching the first ball at the Yankees game over the weekend.

By contrast, Tony Blair has travelled almost 50,000 coalition-building miles. Since the initial attacks of September 11th, Blair has visited, in addition to his globetrotting over the past week, Berlin, Paris, New York, Washington, Brussels, Moscow, Islamabad, Delhi, Geneva, Muscat and Cairo, along with holding a “mini-summit” at Downing Street with a number of European leaders. All this has happened before he adds yet a second post-attack trip to Washington to his list as he flies in to report back to the president.

Now I know we were warned about Bush’s nonexistent penchant for foreign travel at the start of the administration, but this is ridiculous. Even Colin Powell have managed to leave the country!

Many tell me Bush is doing a good job, and yes, he has managed to silence a few critics -- but then, to be honest he never really had much to live up to in the first place.

In the past I have been critical of Blair, as at times I feel his appears as more of a lap dog to Bush than a world leader, and he certainly has never been one to take criticism, but I will admit he has work tirelessly to build up support for the attacks on Afghanistan. What’s more, it has not necessarily all been for political gain. He has just won an historical second landslide victory, he is way ahead of his nearest rival in the opinion polls, and he does not face the prospect of another election for years.

Despite all this he has continued his exhaustive efforts to keep the coalition afloat.

But to me, perhaps the biggest irony is that Blair is conducting the majority of the groundwork in a war he will essentially have hardly any say in. He is touring the world and putting his reputation on the line, albeit for something which has to be done, while the president of the United States, the person who declared war in the first place, appears to be sitting at home leaving everyone else to do all the work.