Should Tony Blair Resign After THIS?

Following the top General's comments, should Tony Blair

  • Resign

    Votes: 7 23.3%

  • Concede to the General's demmands

    Votes: 3 10.0%

  • Fire the General

    Votes: 8 26.7%

  • Choose the Planet X option

    Votes: 12 40.0%
  • Total voters
    30
He should obviously fire the general.

The general serves at the Prime Minister's pleasure. The Prime Minister, in accordance with a democratically governed society, dictates the policy and in case of the armed forces, tells the armed forces what he wants done.

The general has no business at all trying to dictate policy. Off he goes. And to imagine, he only started this job in August!
 
Darth Rotor said:
Translation: General pre cleared his remarks with MoD, PM, or both.

Protocol for fifty, Alex. :)

DR
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Yes. His later remarks sound fishy and distant from his initial tone of urgency as reported by the Daily Mail. On that report, he sounds like Britain is being invaded. It looks like he was coached for his following statements. To say "we constitute a target" is very different from saying our presense "exacerbates the security problems" and that there is a moral gap and that "he has more optimism about Afghanistan." It is quite clear that he has no optimism about Iraq. Why would he then say they should leave when they job is done? What job would that be if there is no optimism on his part?
 
He MUST fire the General, regardless of the rights and wrongs of his comments, it is an anathema to a democracy to have serving soldiers using their position to control public policy. he should also resign, but as he's already announced his resignation (but hasn't set a date) it's a bit of a moot point.
 
brodski said:
He MUST fire the General, regardless of the rights and wrongs of his comments, it is an anathema to a democracy to have serving soldiers using their position to control public policy.
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Of course. Problem is that his poltical position is probably too weak to do that.

he should also resign,
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No. Since he can't fire the guy resigning would be a really bad move.
 
FreeChile said:
Yes. His later remarks sound fishy and distant from his initial tone of urgency as reported by the Daily Mail. On that report, he sounds like Britain is being invaded. It looks like he was coached for his following statements. To say "we constitute a target" is very different from saying our presense "exacerbates the security problems" and that there is a moral gap and that "he has more optimism about Afghanistan." It is quite clear that he has no optimism about Iraq. Why would he then say they should leave when they job is done? What job would that be if there is no optimism on his part?
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In some parts of Iraq, US soldiers also constitute a target, whereas in other sectors, not as much. The continued presence cum occupation is, however, a consistent political target, 24/7, for both those (I am guessing a minority) pleased with it and those opposed to it.

DR
 
FreeChile said:
Too bad the Daily Mail doesn't provide a transcript of the interview! Here's an example of what he actually says now. But I don't see how the General would conclude from that that the solution is to leave Iraq.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/13/1359211
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Heard him do two interviews today and he doesn't think the "solution" is to leave Iraq. As he says you couldn't get a cigarette paper between him and the PM in regards to this.

Really does seem to be a story created by media spin.
 
Darat said:
Heard him do two interviews today and he doesn't think the "solution" is to leave Iraq. As he says you couldn't get a cigarette paper between him and the PM in regards to this.

Really does seem to be a story created by media spin.
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I saw an interview of him today on Danish news. I have to say that I found his retraction totally unconvincing.
 
Darat said:
In the UK interviews he didn't retract anything he had said in the interview. What did he retract in the Danish ones?
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He appeared to retract his statement that "British troops should be pulled out now". He talked about his statement referring to "some areas of Iraq" where their very presence was doing more harm than good. I think he also made a comment on the fact that his "now" was meant to be interpreted as a "phased out slowly" version of "now".
 
Well, at least he's not getting corrected in public, like I've seen Rumsfeld correct or spin the statements of some of his generals at press conferences.
 
DanishDynamite said:
He appeared to retract his statement that "British troops should be pulled out now". He talked about his statement referring to "some areas of Iraq" where their very presence was doing more harm than good. I think he also made a comment on the fact that his "now" was meant to be interpreted as a "phased out slowly" version of "now".
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OK.

You may find this article interesting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6046888.stm
 
FreeChile said:
Well, at least he's not getting corrected in public, like I've seen Rumsfeld correct or spin the statements of some of his generals at press conferences.
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Indeed, one of his talents is the gift for press conferencing.

DR
 
DanishDynamite said:
He appeared to retract his statement that "British troops should be pulled out now". He talked about his statement referring to "some areas of Iraq" where their very presence was doing more harm than good. I think he also made a comment on the fact that his "now" was meant to be interpreted as a "phased out slowly" version of "now".
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Was he asked about his sense of urgency and his thoughts about Christianity vs. Islam as presented in the Daily Mail? Or about the Afghanistan quote concerning his lesser optimism about Iraq?
 
Darth Rotor said:
Indeed, one of his talents is the gift for press conferencing.

DR
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Indeed^2
Rummy is the bestest press conferencer ever.

If I know ahead of time he'll be on, I always make time to watch.

Never, ever boring.
Always a unique turn of phrase.
Entertaining, and you come away actually feeling informed (whether you actually are or not).
 
Darat said:
OK.

You may find this article interesting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6046888.stm
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It is interesting, but it hardly get's him out of hot water. I would say it worsens his postion.

The top general has no business at all airing his personal views on when or where to deploy or to retract troops, in the media.

It is an open challenge to the man who is supposed to be in charge of the armed forces in a democratic society.

I know Tony is on the way out, but anything less than firing this guy would be scary.
 
FreeChile said:
Was he asked about his sense of urgency and his thoughts about Christianity vs. Islam as presented in the Daily Mail? Or about the Afghanistan quote concerning his lesser optimism about Iraq?
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It was a 30 second clip that I saw. And I don't think your questions have any relevance to whether he should be fired immediately or not.
 
DanishDynamite said:
The top general has no business at all airing his personal views on when or where to deploy or to retract troops, in the media.
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You are probably assuming that his statements were not pre-planned/cleared by the PM. Don't assume that. Assume otherwise because that is the case.

He may (or may not) have been misquoted, misunderstood, misspoke, or intentionally taken out of context, but rest assured he wasn't acting on his own.
 
Rob Lister said:
You are probably assuming that his statements were not pre-planned/cleared by the PM. Don't assume that. Assume otherwise because that is the case.
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Evidence?
He may (or may not) have been misquoted, misunderstood, misspoke, or intentionally taken out of context, but rest assured he wasn't acting on his own.
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I know you would like to think so, but do you have anything more than wishful thinking to bring to the table?
 
DanishDynamite said:
It is interesting, but it hardly get's him out of hot water. I would say it worsens his postion.

The top general has no business at all airing his personal views on when or where to deploy or to retract troops, in the media.

It is an open challenge to the man who is supposed to be in charge of the armed forces in a democratic society.

I know Tony is on the way out, but anything less than firing this guy would be scary.
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Why do assume those are his personal views? What am I missing here?

DR
 
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