July 30, 2007
Bush & Blair Brown: Still 'Special'
UPDATED.
Anyone looking for signs British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is distancing himself from Washington on the Iraq war will be gravely disappointed.
In a joint press conference at Camp David today, Brown and his host, President Bush, delivered a harmonious assessment of their relationship and the way forward in Iraq. Brown also seemed to take pains to step closer to Bush on the war.
"We strongly support a bold initiative to make early progress in the Mideast," Brown said, summing up the two leaders' Sunday night and Monday morning talks. "Afghanistan continues to be the front line in the war on terrorism. On Iran, we are in agreement that the sanctions are working."
Minutes later, as Bush and Brown took questions from reporters, Brown was asked whether he disagreed with Bush's assertion that Iraq is the new front line in the war on terror. Brown seemed to backtrack on his earlier response.
"In Iraq you're dealing with Sunni-Shia violence, involvement with Iran, and a large number of al-Qaida terrorists," the newly elected prime minister said. "I described Afghanistan as the first line against the Taliban. There is no doubt that al-Qaida is operating in Iraq. There is no doubt we've had to take very strong measures against them. And there is no doubt that the Iraqi security forces will have to be strong enough to take a stand against them."
In an apparent reference to the ever-present withdrawal question, Brown added, "One of the tests that the military commanders will have on the ground... is whether we are strong enough and [the Iraqi forces] are strong enough to enable them to stand up against that threat."
Though sectarian tension is behind much of the violence in Iraq, Bush has in recent months begun to place heavier emphasis on the threat posed by al-Qaida in Iraq, arguing that regardless of whether the U.S.-led invasion allowed the terrorist network to set up shop there, the reality is they are there now and must be defeated.
Brown's hedge will likely disappoint the many Britons who've been hoping for a dramatic split between 10 Downing Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, was politically wounded by his support for the war and alliance with Bush. Most Britons want to wash their hands of the globally disliked president and the war, and have been looking to Brown to lead the way.
As their two-day visit drew to a close, the two leaders seemed keenly aware of the intense speculation surrounding the trip. Would they get along as Bush and Blair did? Would Brown's expressed anxiety about Iraq invite scorn from the president?
"So everybody's wondering whether or not the prime minister and I were able to find common ground, get along, to have a meaningful discussion," Bush said, opening the press conference. "And the answer is absolutely."
"Call it the 'special relationship,' call it, as [Winston] Churchill did, the 'joint inheritance,' call it, when we meet, as a form of 'homecoming,' as President Reagan did," Brown later echoed.
The president said he and Brown had a two-hour conversation over dinner without "the rest of the delegations," who were sent bowling instead.
The transatlantic compliments were plentiful. Bush said his counterpart was "a principled man... who really wants to get something done," and "a humorous Scotsman" to boot, as opposed to a "dour" one. Brown said he was confident that the U.S. would take on the challenge of terrorism with "resilience, courage, professionalism," and added that "we are at one in the struggle against terrorism."
Brown continued to stress U.S.-U.K. unity, most significantly following Blair's and Bush's leads in characterizing the struggle against Islamic extremism as an ideological struggle for the ages.
"We're in a generation-long battle against al-Qaida-inspired terrorists. A battle in which we can give no quarter," Brown said. "We know we are in a common struggle. We know we have to work together, we know we have to use all means to deal with it."
Brown's comments appeared at odds with earlier moves to step away from the phrase "war on terror" and approach terrorism as a law-enforcement matter. "War on terror" has fallen out of favor among those who suspect the term has done more harm than good.
The 56-year-old Labor Party leader gave a somewhat Bush-like response to the question of when the 5,500 British troops in Iraq will be brought home.
"We've moved from combat to overwatch in three of the four provinces under British control," Brown said, hailing progress on the ground. "Whatever happens, we will make a full statement to Parliament when it returns."
Parliament is due back from summer recess in October, by which time Bush and the U.S. Congress will have received a comprehensive report on Iraq's political and security progress. Many lawmakers who haven't made up their minds about when the war should end are expected to use the report to make a decision.
Meanwhile, Britain began a drawdown of troops earlier this year, and then-Prime Minister Blair said the remaining contingent of troops in Iraq's south would remain depending on Iraqis' progress. The New York Times reported yesterday that the British were preparing to move out of Basra's center -- a development Brown seemed to put the lid on in his talks with Bush.
In recent weeks, Brown has seemed determined to assure the White House that he will be a steadfast ally, as even British officials critical of the war stress that no global crisis can be solved without Washington's leadership.
"This partnership of purpose matters now more than ever," Brown wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published this morning. "For if in the last century we fought together to save the very idea of freedom from the totalitarian threat, in this generation we defend together the ideal of freedom against the terrorist threat."
It was terrorism that bound Gordon's predecessor to Bush nearly six years ago. The threat of Islamic extremism is arguably more real in Britain, which went on high alert last month after purported bomb plots in London and Glasgow were thwarted.
The British papers have been urging Brown to distance himself from Bush. Yet there is reason to believe Brown is ideologically closer to Bush than is widely assumed. Following the terror scare, his government indicated it would adopt strict detention procedures that would more closely mirror those of the U.S.
Today, Brown stood with Bush on his increasingly dismissed assertion that the West is obligated to spread "freedom" where it does not exist.
"We believe in freedom and justice as fundamentals of life. There's no doubt in my mind that freedom is universal, that freedom is a gift to each man, woman and child on the face of the Earth, and that with freedom comes peace," Bush said. "The man I listened to shares that same sense of morality and that same sense of obligation -- not to free others, but to create the conditions so others can realize the blessings of freedom."
Moments later, Brown seconded the president.
"In a sense, the battle that we are facing with international terrorism is a battle between our values, which stress the dignity of every individual, and those who would maim and murder irrespective of faith, indifferent to human life, often simply for propaganda effect," the prime minister said. "So I want to stress the values that we hold in common. Not in an abstract way, but in a very positive and concrete way."
Based on Brown's remarks, his meeting today with congressional leaders in Washington could be uncomfortable. War critics have been hoping Brown would switch tacks on Iraq, thereby increasing pressure on the Bush administration to follow suit.
The prime minister will later travel to New York to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and deliver an address before the international body. Bush and Brown also tackled global trade, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the genocide in Darfur. AP, BBC News, the London Guardian and the Economist have more on the summit.
Posted at 2:08 PM
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Bush Administration, Europe, Gordon Brown, Iraq, Middle East, President Bush, Tony Blair, U.K.
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