Thank You, Smirk
by Nicola Mitchell

April 18, 2002 -- LONDON (apj.us) -- First of all, I'd like to start by saying a personal thank you to good old Smirk.

Yes -- the man in the White House obviously took note of my previous plea to give our prime minister a bit of a rest and actually managed to not only find his way out of the White House but also over to this side of the pond to help our Tony with a his little problem in Northern Island. So for once it appears the president is doing a bit of something to help out our leader -- and I must say, it's about time.

While we are on the subject of Smirk's Northern Island visit, I should perhaps sum up the European reaction to his little jaunt.

For many in Europe, Bush's royal visit was seen as a reward for Blair's steadfast support for the war in Iraq, even in the face of unwavering opposition from both the public and members of his own party -- a reward many members of the press believe he richly deserved.

But unfortunately for Mr Bush, some quarters of the press were not quite so flattering towards him.

There was criticism of the fact that Bush, who was said to be there to discuss the Northern Island peace process, a well-known pet project of his predecessor, spent only one hour with local politicians discussing the issue at hand, with cynics accusing him of using the province as a mere backdrop to the primary focus of his talks with Mr Blair: post-war Iraq.

Surely not!

There was also a lot of discussion within the UK press as to how Blair was doing in his bid to persuade Bush that the UN must have a pivotal role within democracy building in Iraq.

To this end at least, Blair managed to get Bush to make some of the right noises in public. During his visit Bush moved to reassure both Blair and sceptical world leaders that the US would guarantee a "vital role" for the United Nations in post-war Iraq, he even went on to reassure that he would commit to promoting the Middle East peace process.

But more than appealing for UN involvement in the future of Iraq, it was said that Blair also attempted to appeal to Bush in order to persuade him combine America's pursuit of its own security with the wider needs of the international community.

As always for Blair, the work was not over just because Dubya had left the country. In fact, for Blair the work is just beginning as he is continuing to try and build bridges with the rest of Europe.

So far Blair has made some progress with the key members of what are now affectionately termed as "old" Europe. Using the EU's Athens summit to make his peace with French president Jacques Chirac, he has also taken the opportunity to discuss the next move in Iraq with Kofi Annan.

The prime minister has also been making headway with Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in a pre-summit conference in Hanover.

So while the peace building process gets underway in Iraq, it is also in its early stages in Europe. The victory in Iraq will serve as a vindication to Blair's critics, but the military battle will seem easy in comparison to the war that is looming regarding how Iraq should be run in the future. Blair currently finds himself faced with the American desire to dominate Iraqi diplomacy under General Tommy Franks and the ex-general Jay Garner, but outside the US there is near universal agreement that the UN should have the main role.

On the bright side for Blair, the rumblings of a potential threat to his leadership seem to have died down with the growing success of the military campaign, but divisions within his party still run deep. Given the problems both at home and in Europe, maybe Blair should give some thought to moving to the US, where, according to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Blair would make a much better leader of the free world than Bush.

Well, it is always good to know you've got something to fall back on in case it all comes crumbling down.