The quote of the weekend must be President George W. Bush’s remark during a television interview that he had not taken the decisions he did in fighting the war on terror to improve his opinion poll ratings – he took them because he believed it was the right course of action to take.
Many people can argue about whether Mr Bush did the right thing, but I have a suspicion that history will be a lot kinder in judging Mr Bush’s legacy than the anti-war protesters who tried to disrupt his dinner with Gordon Brown on Sunday night.
He overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan and destroyed the al-Qa’eda terrorist infrastructure responsible for the September 11 attacks. He overthrew Saddam Hussein’s detested regime – which had been a thorn in the West’s side for more than a decade – and he has built an international consensus for dealing with the alarming issue of Iran’s nuclear programme.
OK, he made mistakes along the way – coalition troops were redeployed from Afghanistan to Iraq before the new Afghan government had established itself, and the initial post-war administration of post-war Iraq was an unmitigated disaster. But at least Mr Bush learnt from his mistakes. The Nato mission in Afghanistan is now dedicated to building the country, and the military surge in Iraq has finally succeeded in subduing the insurgency.
Mr Bush has shown that with strong leadership, and clear decision-making, a lot can be achieved. These are lessons that our beleaguered prime minister would do well to take to heart.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/threelinewhip/june2008/gordon-brown-could-learn-from-george-w-bush.htmInteresting blog post, Gordon Brown the British PM is a world class ditherer who can't make any decisions let alone tough ones.
