Great Britain

Prince Harry is going to Iraq.

I am no big fan of Royalty, and Brit Royalty in particular seem a bit silly. But right now, America, with a VP and most of the Republican Party that are chickenhawks, and a President that is not only a chickenhawk but went AWOL from his cushy non-combat position daddy Bush landed him, I have to tip my hat to the British Royal Family. They put themselves on the line where their nation's aggression goes...and they always have.

From BBC news:

Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq with his regiment, the head of the British army has said...

Clarence House and the MoD confirmed the prince would be sent to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, saying he would take on a "normal troop commander's role" rather than a desk job.

Wow...a nation whose leaders actually SERVED in war. Bush crawled away in a drunken stupor and pissed himself (or a police car) rather than serve. Wait...let's see how Bush really served his country:

Just about the entire Republican Party leadership are chickenhawks who never dreamed of serving their nation. At least Democrats elected a whole slew of combat veterans in 2006 to show that we respect and admire our troops.

The man who went from great to merely a lap dog of George Bush's, will say goodbye on May 9th. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's departure announcement was met with little interest even on BBC news' front page, or even on Daily Kos where merely brief mention is made of it.

Tony Blair, a man who could have been great, is slinking away with his tail between his legs under suspicion of a Tom DeLay/Abramoff style favors-for-donations (or should that be "favours"-for-quids) scandal.

from the Sunday Mail:

The inquiry began after it emerged that secret loans had been made to Labour before the 2005 general election. Some lenders were subsequently nominated for peerages...

Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy, No.10 aide Ruth Turner and multimillionaire businessman Sir Christopher Evans remain on police bail.

So here in the US you get a no-bid contract instead of a title, but otherwise it sure looks like Republican-style corruption. May Bush have the same fate as his lap dog...

In sharp contrast to the Republican claims that all is well in Iraq, Tony Blair recently admitted that Iraq is a "disaster."

This comes via Truthout.

Tony Blair admitted that British intervention in Iraq has been a disaster last night - sending shockwaves through Westminster.

In his frankest admission about the war to date, Mr. Blair admitted that Western forces have been powerless to stop the descent into violence.

The Prime Minister stopped short of accepting the blame for plunging Iraq to the brink of civil war - blaming instead the insurgent uprising that has killed 125 British troops.

But his admission in an interview with the Arab news channel Al Jazeera will be seen as an historic climbdown for Mr. Blair, who has always fought to put a positive gloss on often disastrous events.

Challenged by veteran interviewer Sir David Frost that the Western invasion of Iraq has "so far been pretty much of a disaster", Mr. Blair said: "It has."

...

Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff, told the Daily Mail that Mr. Blair's desire to forge a "liberal democracy" in Iraq was a "naive" failure and commented: "Whatever consent we may have had in the first place" from the Iraqi people "has largely turned to intolerance."

and lest we forget what Blair means when he admits the Bush/Blair Iraq policy has been a disaster, here is a reminder from the same article:

Now there is material evidence that Republicans and anybody who supports Bush is not just against Democrats, but in direct opposition to the world's opinion about George W. Bush.

Republicans, at last, are a minority.

Image by Guardian Online

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US president as part of an "axis of evil", but it is Mr Bush who now alarms voters in countries with traditionally strong links to the US.

The survey has been carried out by the Guardian in Britain and leading newspapers in Israel (Haaretz), Canada (La Presse and Toronto Star) and Mexico (Reforma), using professional local opinion polling in each country.
It exposes high levels of distrust. In Britain, 69% of those questioned say they believe US policy has made the world less safe since 2001, with only 7% thinking action in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased global security.