September 1, 2010 6:08 PM

Tony Blair: Bush Viewed World with "Immense Simplicity"

By
Stephanie Condon
Topics
Republicans ,
White House
Bush with Blair

President Bush, right, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair take part in a joint press availability, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington.

(Credit: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Former President George W. Bush was "true idealist" who "had immense simplicity in how he saw the world," former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote in his newly-released memoir, according to reports.

Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy, described elements of his personal and professional relationship with the former American president in "A Journey," which was released in British bookstores Wednesday.

"Right or wrong it led to decisive leadership," Blair wrote of Mr. Bush's world view, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Blair also wrote that Mr. Bush "had genuine integrity and as much political courage as any leader I ever met," CNN reports.

The former prime minister describes himself as a progressive more in line politically with former President Bill Clinton. In fact, he calls Mr. Clinton his "political soulmate."

He reportedly suggests in his memoir that he was uneasy with Mr. Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech, in which the president described Iran, Iraq, Syria and North Korea as an "axis of evil," according to the Telegraph. He noted there were "drawbacks with the way this thesis was expressed by its supporters."

However, he defended Mr. Bush against those quick to criticize the president's policies.

"He was basically considered a right-wing Republican bastard for getting rid of hostile brutal dictatorships and insisting they be replaced not with friendly brutal dictatorships but with an attempt at liberal democracy," Blair reportedly wrote.

Blair also reportedly called Mr. Bush very personable.

"You might not agree with him, but if you're a voter, you would never think you would be uncomfortable or feel inadequate if you met him socially," Blair wrote. "You would think he would be nice and easy with you. And you'd be right."


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by eddee4911 September 3, 2010 3:36 AM EDT
How did BUSH and CHENEY escape impeachment. He lied about the Phantom WMD and started a war where so many Americans got killed and many more maimed and wounded. A war where $900 billion of taxpayers money was spent. And then you have another president who got impeached for getting a bl0wj0b. Figure than one out. I really believe that if a Democrat started the war in Iraq, he would have been impeached.

And now the Chinese are reaping the rewards from IRAQ after refusing to send any soldier to help fight the insurgents. To add insult to injury, we owe them money and their economy is flourishing because of American Company greed. Everything is made in China these days including computers. They just bypassed Japan's economy and it won't be long before they will equal the United States militarily. They are in the process of upgrading their military and if this keeps up they will also equal the US economically. AMERICA WAKE UP. Take us back to the time when "MADE IN USA" meant so much to us and the rest of the world.
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by MurdochSucks September 2, 2010 7:22 PM EDT
A simple view from a simple mind.
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by Leaderless September 3, 2010 12:20 AM EDT
barack is simple, you can see right thru him.
by phnewman September 2, 2010 11:52 AM EDT
I agree with many points made rafterman1... I also agree with democracy5. We should have not diverted our troops, We should have taken care of business there(Afghanistan)then went to Iraq. We put Saddam in power his corruption and mistreatment of the Iraqi people was our fault, we put him in power and we needed to take him out! That being said I think that is how it should have been presented to the American people,instead we got misinformation regarding weapons of mass destruction. Maybe if we took on one task at a time we would not have lost so many soldiers. 911 and the was in Iraq are 2 different things completely.
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by democracy5 September 2, 2010 12:13 PM EDT
"That being said I think that is how it should have been presented to the American people,instead we got misinformation regarding weapons of mass destruction. Maybe if we took on one task at a time we would not have lost so many soldiers. 911 and the was in Iraq are 2 different things completely."

Thank you.
by phnewman September 2, 2010 12:54 PM EDT
War** not was..
by jwilpar September 2, 2010 11:05 AM EDT
CBS chose not to include that Blair noted that Bush was very intelligent. Interesting that they didn't include that fact. Doesn't fit the template they helped create for 8 years.
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by citizenusa-2009 September 2, 2010 9:52 AM EDT
BTW-It's interesting (and I brought up this FACT, BEFORE the ****** was elected the FIRST time) Little Georgie is known for executing MORE mentally challenged prisoners in the State of Texas than any other Governor in history!

At the time, I viewed this as a serious and evil character flaw..when in reality, he seemed to want to eliminate the very traits he himself possessed. I SAW IT, HE SAW IT, and the voters missed it!!
Reply to this comment
by democracy5 September 2, 2010 8:01 PM EDT
brian1920: GWB executed more mentally challenged people as Gov of TX than any previous Gov. That is a FACT! Look it up.

You have no right to call the poster a "wacko" if he is stating FACTS.
by democracy5 September 9, 2010 12:14 PM EDT
brian1920: Bush was known to have executed many mentally challenged prisoners while he was the Gov of TX. This is not difficult to look up. Try looking up the facts before you accuse someone ELSE of being a "wacko".
by citizenusa-2009 September 2, 2010 9:42 AM EDT
During the entire 8 years the simpleton and his Master (Dic Cheney) were reigning havoc on the world, I never had a full nights sleep.

Now that the moron is out and an intelligent leader is in, the stress factor is down quite a bit. One (and only one) small accomplishment was made by the suffering and death of so many troops and civilians..we, as Americans will NEVER be duped again! Going forward, I believe we will be able to spot a "Bushwhacker" a mile away and run the OTHER WAY!
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by isanyonefair September 2, 2010 3:39 PM EDT
One would hope that this was true. It is not.

All you have to do is watch fox for a while to realize that there are a lot of other people losing sleep because Obama is in office.

Problem is that a good portion of the population doesn't really look at the policies instituted by a Presidency. They are too fixated on the color of the skin and then making up other excuses to hate him.

If Obama was white, the liberals would dislike his policies and the conservatives would be singing his praises.

While Bush was in office "we the people" stood by while he practically torched the constitution. While Obama has not entirely healed it yet, he has received no praise from any side for any repairs to date.
by daffy64 September 2, 2010 9:38 AM EDT
"Right or wrong it led to decisive leadership," Blair wrote of Mr. Bush's world view, the Daily Telegraph reports.

-

If someone's "decisive" for the wrong reasons (Iraq) what good does it do?
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by isanyonefair September 2, 2010 3:40 PM EDT
But by golly you had a "decider" in office didn't yall.
by t05241964 September 2, 2010 8:58 AM EDT
Bu$h was a true moron alright!
Reply to this comment
by incog-nito September 2, 2010 4:46 AM EDT
Tony Blair could have left it at "simplicity". That could have been interpreted as a compliment. Instead, he threw in the qualifier "immense". He knew exactly what he wanted to say.
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by formrusmcsgt September 2, 2010 5:50 AM EDT
Yeah.

dubya fried a lot of nuerons, obviously.....
by FredC1212 September 2, 2010 6:10 AM EDT
The elephant in the room is Iran's nuclear program, which was ongoing in 2001.

The Bush Administration ignored that fact in order to go after Iraq's non-existent nuclear effort.

Remember, VP Cheney's office committed treason when they vengefully outed former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife as a CIA agent after the former Ambassador reported there was no evidence Iraq was pursuing nuclear material.

In fact, immense simplicity is a lot nicer judgement than crackpot enabler of traitors.
by halfalib September 2, 2010 3:49 AM EDT
I agree Bush is a Simpleton. And, usually a Simpleton is well-behaved and content. But because of millions of other simpletons voted for him, TWICE, Bush became the only simpleton who's powerful enough to waste 700 billion+ dollars & thousands of American lives for a still-not-yet-accomplished stupid mission. That's definitely a world record.
Bush reminded me of the Spanish King Phillip who ordered the attack on the British Empire in the 16th century. That unwavering leader also bankrupted his country.
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